Lit tobacco ban shuffles smokers around campus as fall classes commence
With this university’s smoking ban in effect, smoke in the air is now more isolated — and so are student smokers.
“I feel like a second-class citizen — alienated,” said Carmen Deanna, a doctoral candidate studying government and politics, while taking a smoking break near McKeldin Library, one of four designated smoking areas on the campus.
Other smokers said being forced to congregate at four small smoking zones separates them from other students and ads to the already harsh social stigma smokers face.
“I think the university is simply following a part of American culture that has demonized tobacco, for good reasons,” said Deanna. “Autonomous democratic citizens should be able to make that decision for themselves.”
This university banned lit tobacco products in July as part of a University System of Maryland policy to eliminate smoking from its member institutions’ premises. University officials designated four areas where smokers can still light up, marked by signs on the south side of McKeldin Library near Somerset Hall, between Riggs Alumni Center and the Stadium Drive garage, west of the main staircase in front of Comcast Center and between Byrd Stadium and Ellicott Hall.
For nonsmokers, the principle of the ban is what is important, showing that this university is concerned about students’ health, said Clark Wright, a junior economics and finance major.
“It represents a progressive view and perspective on where our society is going,” Wright said. “It’s a healthy policy I think. There’s already plenty of reasons for people to quit, and if it’s losing the convenience to smoke outside on campus that does it, good for them.”
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