As New York state legislators consider broadening the Clean Indoor Air Act of 1990 to include restaurants, bars and other indoor spaces where smokers congregate, Cornell students and administrators have enacted a new smoking ban in all campus undergraduate residential buildings.
Last spring, Campus Life administrators collaborated with the Residence Hall Association and the Student Assembly's Residence and Community Life Committee to survey the 5,500 students living on campus. The seven-question electronic survey asked students their thoughts on smoking, their smoking habits, the effectiveness of current smoking policies and if the university should implement a smoking ban.
The 26 percent survey response rate pleased juniors Jeremy Weinberg, president of the Residence Hall Association, and Noah Doyle, Student Assembly chair of the Residence and Community Life Committee. An overwhelming majority -- about 90 percent -- of Cornell students living on-campus are nonsmokers, according to this survey and earlier surveys done by Campus Life. Fifty-four percent of the respondents to the survey were in favor of a smoking ban in all residence halls, while 46.1 percent did not favor a ban. The findings come closer when respondents were asked about placing more restrictions on the current smoking policy: 47.8 percent of respondents supported more restrictions, while 47.4 percent were comfortable with the status quo.
The survey data supported the need to ban smoking in residence halls, not only because of the potential of fire and the wear and tear on residence hall furniture and walls, but because of serious health effects to residents resulting from inhalation of second-hand smoke.
"Over the past few years, there have been a significant number of complaints from students and the parents of individual students who have allergies, about second-hand smoke's effects on the general living environment," said Don King, director of community development for Campus Life. "And there have also been studies done that suggest that individuals living in smoke-free environments are 40 percent less likely to take up smoking."
The smoking ban was put into effect for North Campus residence halls for first-year students this past August. West Campus residence halls must comply with the ban beginning in August of this year. The ban specifies that smoking is forbidden in "student rooms, offices, lounges, entryways, hallways, kitchens, bedrooms, elevators and stairwells." In addition, beginning in August, people who smoke outside of residence halls must do so 30 feet from the buildings or where it is otherwise posted. And the no-smoking policy relates not only to students in the residential halls, but also to staff and anyone visiting residence halls, King said.
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