There’s a push from many members of this campus, and even this staff, to unite the people on this campus and be more of a community. Sometimes the only thing that unites us is the commonality that we’re mostly commuters. Many of us park our cars, walk to class, sit through class, then get in our cars and leave.

What would a smoking ban on this campus effectively do? Segregate the masses. There’s already a common feeling from non-smokers of being annoyed when they walk out of their dorms or classrooms to the circles of nicotine addicts. A general displeasure in the opposite direction would make matters worse.

A smoker is a creature of habit. By the end of a class period, the most habitual users need to light up a smoke. They are going to be itching for their next fix. If they weren’t allowed to smoke all day on their public campus, imagine the anger that would build towards their opposition.

In 2003, lawmakers passed the ‘Connecticut Clean Air Indoor Act’, which stopped individuals from lighting up a cigarette indoors. This included restaurants, bars, elevators, bowling alleys and, yes, school buildings. This is all fine. Contained indoor smoke will do more harm than outdoor smoke that is able to escape much easier. Smokers that attend these places can easily step outside for a smoke break. Hardly anyone can logically argue against this ban, not with all the studies done about the dangers of secondhand smoke, which the National Cancer Institute says causes 46,000 heart disease deaths a year. The law that passed in 2003 didn’t include anything about not smoking outdoors. If our campus decided to enforce a smoking ban on its public property, it would essentially go against established laws and civil rights not yet created by any kind of law in our state.

This would open up an interesting slew of possibilities surrounding what a smoker would do if they weren’t allowed to smoke outside their dorm building or right after getting out of a two and a half hour lecture. Would they congregate across the street from campus or on the other side of Paul Manafort Drive and huddle in a group while they share stories from the good old days when they could smoke with movable freedom while walking from class to class? The answer is a most certain no.

They wouldn’t stop smoking on campus. Since when have minor laws or rules stopped anyone from anything? We all jaywalk, we all speed and please, don’t be naive, you can bet the majority of our population has taken part in prohibited substances at one time or another during our high school or college life.

We have a dry campus for alcohol, yet you still hear the numerous stories of students being written up for drinking in their dorm room. Most of the time those individuals are underage.

These smoking students aren’t doing anything wrong. They buy their own legal cigarettes and legally smoke them outdoors. Punishing them for doing something our country and state currently says they can do would only add to the divide between the different populations on this campus, something that isn’t needed during a time when students should be rallying together for the greater good of their university, their state and their future.