Smokers beware - your days of smoking in your own room might be numbered. MSU is on track to be the last remaining Big Ten university to designate rooms in its residence halls by smoking preference. University of Michigan housing officials are set to ban smoking from their school's residence halls by fall 2003.
Although similar plans haven't started stirring in East Lansing, it is possible MSU could follow the trend. But, perhaps, this isn't an issue MSU should stand alone on.
Members of Olin Health Center's Community Action Team say they have been working to establish smoke-free dormitories. Supporters of plans for smoke-free dorms - including the Residence Halls Association - claim a ban would help those who are affected by secondhand smoke.
But MSU leaders shouldn't forget that while residence hall rooms are university property, the students who rent them out during the year should be given some general rights to privacy.
According to the 2002 National Collegiate Health Assessment Survey, 20 percent of MSU students say they smoke. Those smokers should have the option of living in a dorm room they can smoke in. If they lived in a house or apartment, they would have that right.
Angela Brown, director of University Housing, said smoking already is banned in all MSU residence hall public areas and an additional 2,800 smoke-free zones have been designated across campus.
That's fine, but there is a difference - public space is public and private space is private.
Brown also said the 14,960 students living in residence halls were placed depending on whether they identified themselves as smokers or nonsmokers when applying to MSU.
Students already are given a choice of whether they want to live in a smoke-free zone. And there still are places on campus for smokers to light up. They should continue to have that choice.
Although the Community Action Team and RHA make valid points about protecting the health of every student on campus by banning smoking in all residence halls, students still should have the right to smoke in the privacy of their own room.
Arguments could be made about secondhand smoke affecting everyone in a building, but a smoker puffing away in his or her own room, behind closed doors, is not that harmful.
Despite the efforts of many smoke-free campaigns, America is a place were people are bound to run into smokers. But just as nonsmokers should not be forced to be consumed by tobacco fumes, smokers should not be severely restricted in their practices.
Smoking restrictions at MSU are sufficient. There is no need to come down with stricter regulations.
MSU should not follow the Big Ten lead and jump on the "ban all smoking" bandwagon.
Incoming Spartans should have the choice of living in smoking or nonsmoking rooms in residence halls. It's up to them to decide if they want to be around smokers and where smoking is appropriate.
