There is no just reason to ban smoking on campus

Editor,

Is outdoor second-hand tobacco smoke a real health concern? I believe the Faculty Senate needs to update its "Smoke-Free Campus Proposal" of April to include some evidence more conclusive than just the Surgeon General's Warning that outdoor second-hand smoke is a noteworthy health concern for nonsmokers.

If not, then there is simply no justifiable reason for banning outdoor smoking on campus. As far as the health of smokers is concerned, smokers are adults, so the faculty should treat them like adults and allow them the liberty to choose what to do with their lungs. Any smoker already knows that smoking is unhealthy. And if a smoker needs help quitting, he or she probably knows where to find a doctor who will provide private advice.

To use school funds to punish smokers for being unhealthy, or to publicly remind smokers of the health risks, is not only bad money management, but also condescending. Passing a rule that requires students to fit a certain standard of health is oppressive, not healing. If outdoor smoking is not a serious health concern for nonsmokers, we should let smokers - not the Board of Regents - decide if it's a health concern for smokers.

Cigarettes may smell bad, but we can't pass laws restricting everything that people may find passively offensive on campus. If a personal liberty as simple as the right to smoke outside can be regulated by the Board of Regents and the student governments, what other unpopular student liberties will be next to visit the administrative chopping block?

Troy Chavkin

UNM student