New Smoking Rules Healthful

Smoking will no longer be permitted in any area of first-year dormitories. Under the new policy set forth by the Freshman Dean's Office (FDO) last week, students in the Class of 2001 will have to take their cigarette smoking 100 feet from any University building.

We believe that this is a positive step in University policy for the time being, but, in the future, a more accommodating solution can be reached. Second-hand smoke is a hazard to non-smokers; innocent by-standers should not bear the burden of their fellow inhabitants' addiction. The existing policy already prohibits smoking in upperclass houses and the Yard dorms, and no student may be forced to live with any student who smokes. So the new policy is not an unprecedented leap; instead, it seems merely to assure non-smokers that their environment is truly smoke-free.

However, since smoking is an addiction and a legal choice for students over the age of 18, the University ought to consider more friendly options than sending smoking students and proctors into the cold 100 feet from their dorms. Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth S. Nathans cited a decline in the number of students requesting smoking rooms as a reason for the new policy: "There have been fewer than a dozen [students who indicate that they smoke on their rooming applications] for the last several years." If the FDO believes this to be a true representation of the number of smokers on this campus, then it is to naive to make a decision concerning them. If, however, as we think, the FDO is hiding behind this excuse as a justification for the new policy, then we believe it has acted duplicitously.

Certainly more than 12 students (less than 1 percent) per class smoke, and Boston winters are cold. We are confident that smoking will continue inside the dormitories. (The smoke detectors are easily removed, and the windows still open.) Therefore, to decrease the inconvenience to non-smoking students, as well as to accommodate smokers while searching for new solutions, the University should look into ways to allow smokers to pursue their habit, such as establishing designated rooms for first-year students or abandoning the 100-foot restriction.

We applaud the University for affirming that smoking is hazardous and that non-smokers shouldn't have to pay any price to breathe clean air.