UWM Should Focus on Eliminating Sexual Assault and Helping Students of Color Succeed, not Banning Smoking

On November 19, 2007 the UWM Student Association Senate voted in support of legislation that bans tobacco use on campus. The UW-Milwaukee Physical Environment Committee plans to form a sub-committee to update the campus smoking policy and fully ban smoking on campus property, according to David Heathcote, chair of the Physical Environment Committee. SA also recently sent out a survey asking students what they thought about the campus-wide ban to gauge he reaction of students to the proposal.

As a 27-year-old smoker of 14 years, I had a few thoughts on this proposal. While it’s understandable that non-smokers don’t want to walk through a cloud of smoke when they leave campus buildings, I find it incredibly obnoxious that the SA is pushing for a completely smoke-free campus.

I can’t speak for all smokers, but as a student who works two jobs while going to school full-time, smoking is a major vice. It might sound like an excuse to some, but to each their own; every person deals with stress and anxiety in different ways, and some of us happen to choose giving ourselves cancer to cope. Should that concern other students? No. It’s nobody’s business how somebody decides to cope with stress, as long as it isn’t endangering other students. You don’t have to like it, but you can still respect other people’s choices.

One of the questions that the survey asked was if students were aware that there was no smoking allowed within 25 feet of the doors. As a student who has attended school at UWM for three years, I personally had no idea that such a rule existed, especially considering the fact that the campus ashtrays are all located really close to the doors. Here’s an idea – update your signs and move the ashtrays away from the doors and maybe less people would smoke so close to the buildings.

I try to be a respectful smoker – I don’t smoke near the doors, I don’t blow my smoke in people’s faces, and I don’t throw my butts on the ground. I understand that there are inconsiderate people out there that don’t care about personal space or the environment or other people’s health, but I am not one of them, and, frankly, I haven’t seen anybody on campus being that openly rude when they are smoking a cigarette. If this is a serious issue that non-smoking students have to deal with then I understand the concern, but there are other options you can consider in place of completely banning smoking.

The thing that bothers me the most about this proposal is the fact that there are so many more important issues that UWM should be focusing on in place of banning smoking. Here’s a thought for SA – why don’t you focus on the incredibly serious issues that UWM has, such as the disgustingly high number of sexual assault allegations against faculty and staff on campus? Or, I don’t know, maybe try to get UWM off the list of the 21 worst schools in the country for black students? Maybe I’m crazy, but I think that stopping faculty from sexually assaulting students, spreading awareness about the abhorrent rape culture that the administration is clearly trying to cover up, and providing a safe, discrimination-free campus for black students to succeed is a bit more important than banning a students from legally smoking a cigarette in between classes.

We are all adults here. There is no reason that students should be trying to remove smoking from outside of the buildings. If you are concerned about people smoking near the doors then aim to get the ashtrays moved, put up more signage and maybe designate a few spots around campus specifically for smokers.

The UWM administration and SA need to rethink their priorities if adults legally smoking outdoors is a more important issue than students being sexually assaulted by campus faculty, or students dropping out of school because they don’t feel safe on campus.