Currier Fuming Over Smoking Policy Violations

Despite a new policy in Currier House that designated Gilbert Tower as the only section in the house where smoking is permitted, many non-smoking residents complain that they are still breathing second-hand smoke.

"[My room] is like a gas chamber," Lori A. Lepak '97 said, adding that smoke enters her room through the ventilation system.

Current policy has designated three of Currier's four towers as non-smoking. Students are allowed to smoke in Gilbert Hall as long as they do not bother the non-smokers around them.

But one student said that smoking is occurring in areas other than Gilbert. "I live in Bingham [Tower] and a while ago, someone decided to disregard the rule and smoke and then burned tons of incense to cover it up," Nyani-Iisha F. Martin '97 said. "It traveled all through the air system. I wish people would abide by the policy they have now."

Other students said they thought the policy should allow smokers and non-smokers to peacefully coexist.

"Even in Gilbert, you can only smoke if your neighbor doesn't protest," said Sean H. Cohan '96. "Students with currently existing habits have rights."

"The ventilation systems allow air to rise and go down and that infringes on everyone else," he said. "Maybe the solution is messing around with the ventilation, but the current compromise is probably a solid one."

"It's fine because they just keep it in one tower," Sara Su Jones '96 said.

According, to the Massachusetts Clean Indoor Air Law of 1987, all institutions of higher education are required to provide equitable housing for nonsmokers as well as smokers.

The law also says areas may be designated specifically for smokers only if alternate areas of "sufficient size and capacity" are available to nonsmokers.

All of Currier House except Gilbert is designated non-smoking. Non-smokers who draw a low number in the housing lottery are automatically placed into towers other than Gilbert.

Although residents say the ventilation system does allow some smoke to circulate, many residents said the current policy is fair.

"Gilbert's nice; Tuchman [Hall] is farther away and not as nice. I think it isn't fair that non-smokers with low lottery numbers have to go to Tuchman," says one Currier resident.

"I think it's a fair and equitable policy," says Bill A. Blankenship '96. "If they still have a problem even though they were given ample chance to get a room elsewhere they need to get off their pedestals and learn to live with other people."