Campus Wide Smoking Ban
 

Coming from a non-smoker this is the stupidest law ever. I haven't heard a single respectable argument to back it up. Wear a gas mask people....



*For background, people are trying to pass a campus wide smoking ban on the grounds that any second hand cigarette smoke is a dangerous amount.

Yeah...that sounds like a stupid law to me. Sure have no smoking in and around food service and eating areas, and buildings, but the whole campus? That's just a bit rude if you ask me.

mind you, it's against the law to smoke in school grounds over here. Not on campus grounds though as far as I know.

Smaller campuses I can see, school grounds (elementary, middle, and high) definitely, but remember that our campus is over 2,700 acres!

Our current rule of no smoking in twenty feet of any building is rational, reasonable from a health standpoint, but this seems to be just a symbolic law of trying to be more/just as "progressive" as everyone else.

The campus where I work is state property and is supposed to go "smoke free" as of June 2009.

Given the amount of nicotine consumed by mental health patients and mental health workers, I don't see this working easily.

We're already making plans on whose cars will be the designated smoking areas, and may continue to insist on use of the Butt Hutt, an enclosed courtyard off the chart room, since the only way for the State Police to monitor it would be to hover their chopper overhead, and they have a lot more important things to do, most days. Like botching a hostage situation and getting nurses killed.

In an interesting move, my hospital installed brand new ashtrays on the outside of the building the day after the upcoming ban was announced.

When Ohio voters saw fit to pass the stupidest law ever, taking away the rights of private tavern owners, and due in a large part to two concurrent issues on the ballot that confused the hell out of most people, I expected to see my (then current) campus go non-smoking. I admired the president's decision to designate very specific smoking areas saying he agreed with a person's right to smoke if they want even if he did not, and to place designated areas where they are easily avoided by those who want to be nowhere near smoke.

It's basically the same thing here.

However, at our local hospital...you cannot smoke on campus at all. Not in your car, not in your car as you're driving in the driveway or out of the driveway...no where.

A hospital I can understand, but think the "in your car" thing is pretty stupid...but at a community college you just about have to make concessions for smokers or risk losing students. Every student counts in enrollment and retention and enrollment and retention are the goal.

I hear rumors that they may put another vote on the ballot, allowing Joe Schmoe who owns a damn beer and shot bar to decide if he wants smoking allowed in the establishment that he pays for. I also heard from a bartender the other day they got a written warning based on "two guys from somewhere else who reported they saw someone smoking in the bar." She was there, and saw no such incident.

Yeah...Gestapo State anyone?

Obama will never visit your campus.

Yeah, but Boehner is a chain smoking machine!

Wait, does this apply to joints????

In theory you're not supposed to smoke anywhere on the grounds of our local hospital; there are signs up all over. Don't know if they brought in a rule-change or have just decided not to police it but every time I've been over there, I've smoked outside, just a little past the door and there've always been other people smoking and there's one of those bins with an ashtray at the top.

I suspect if they tried to enforce it they'd have riots on their hands, with their staff if not the patients.

At uni, it's pretty much a smoke where you want outdoors campus. There are certain areas where you can't like outside the little lobby of the union building and so on, but mostly it's anywhere outdoors. It would be impossible to police anyway: Leeds campus is one of the biggest in the country, it encompasses a bloody great chunk of the city along with the purposebuilt campus buildings. That means lots of hidden walkways, twisting paths, carparks, parks, houses.

When I first got there in 2006, the union cafe still had a smoking area; very separate from the rest of the cafe. That feels like a long time ago, and the idea of lighting up inside a public building seems kind of bizarre to me now. Funny how quickly we adapt to new assumptions.

You should also be permitted to urinate anywhere you want.

Whew...that's a relief...I just pissed all over your living room carpet.


Ya asshat. :p

About 5 years ago, my dad, who is a physicist, did a year's sabbatical in Austria. The students at the Austrian university were like chimneys. But his optics lab had all this expensive optic equipment, and smoke leaves a residue on the glass that has a significant impact on the experiments, so smoking was banned in the lab itself. He said that after spending a day in the clean lab, and just walking out into the hallway, it was always a shock. All of his lab assistants would immediately grab their cigarettes and start puffing away, surrounding him with a cloud of smoke. He was always glad to spend the entire day in the lab so he could have fresh air.

The Big Lebowski: I just want to understand this, sir. Every time a rug is micturated upon in this fair city, I have to compensate the owner?


The Dude: That rug really tied the room together.

I love the Dude. He shall abide.

Must have Coen brothers movie marathon soon!

We rented it on Saturday night. I had watched it maybe 8-9 years ago with my wife and her brother, and I liked it a lot. They both hated it. Recently, with the tenth anniversary giving it a bump, my wife's curiosity was peaked. She saw a short collection of clips from it, but didn't remember it at all, and wanted to watch it. So we did. I liked it even more the second time I saw it, and she really enjoyed it this time. Great movie.