Smoking Ban!

So in this week's Echo, the school newspaper here at UCA, a new ban was announced that will affect the UCA student body in the Fall of 2010. This directly affects all of you, you prospective students. There will be no more smoking on the UCA main campus, with fines of up to $500 being enforced if caught. Now there are a few problems with this in my mind: 1) It was decided at a level above the student body. Not many students will know about this, so they did not have the proper channel to voice their opinion. 2) Without proper notification of students, many will be unfairly fined and caused even more financial hardships than they already can afford being a college student. 3) If there is not a policy for standards with the smoking ban, this is simply another reason for students not to attend UCA. Now by saying this, do not take me to be the avid beat neck, ciggarette smoking stereotype (no offense to those of you that are, to each his own) instead I simply enjoy fairness across all levels. I hope that the students will actually be given a vote on this in the future, instead of simply forcing it upon them all at once.

There are positive sides to this ban though, and the first few that come to mind are: 1) This allows students the opportunity to stand up for their American rights and protest something they stand strongly for. 2) There are already debates on the subject scheduled for campus, and this is a great way to advocate being knowledgeable about the subject. It will also help the students understand how much it will affect them. 3) If and when it actually occurs, it will genuinely make the campus a prettier place assuming we are in a perfect world.

However I do not think we live in a perfect world, and the arrogant, backlashing smokers will still continue to smoke on campus and litter their ciggarette butts all over UCA. (Once again not bashing all smokers, just those that choose to litter on our campus)

So I leave you with this my prospective students: what do you feel on the subject, and how would you choose to fight against the man if you feel strongly about keeping our lungs black and our hearts red? If you are the other side and wish to keep UCA beautiful and stop all smoking on campus, how would you go about influencing others to feel the same way you do?



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