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Articles
Take It Outside
Brown Daily Herald
. Providence, RI
Monday, December 4, 2000
The recent decision by the University of Rhode Island to ban smoking in all its college dorms is a wise and responsible action on the part of a university administration concerned about the welfare of its students. Brown would be well-advised to consider implementing a similar program on its campus, to lessen the chances of fires and drastically improve the healthiness of life in its dorms.
The familiar and compelling arguments against smoking make it justifiable, even commendable, for a university to make efforts to stop its students from participating in this deadly activity, and forcing students to take their habit out-of-doors would certainly give some smokers reason to cut back on their habit. The harmfulness of secondhand smoke makes it unacceptable for non-smoking students to be placed in danger by allowing them to live in a potentially dangerous environment. In the same way that a university would be responsible for removing asbestos from a dorm building, for example, or providing sufficient fire exits, it should take on the burden of providing a smoke-free environment. The risks of doing otherwise are simply too great.
Perhaps Brown's administration does not want to invoke the ire of its many smoking students by instituting a similar no-smoking policy in its dorms. Other than this unsatisfying explanation, it is difficult to think of a reason for why the University would be slow to take this step. Maybe URI's decision will galvanize Brown into taking similar action.
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