Editor’s note: The policy decision to ban smoking in classrooms and public places on campus had been in the works for 10 months before the ban was adopted. The ban exempted classrooms with less than 20 people with instructor and student approval.
The proposed ban on smoking in classrooms and public gatherings at the University is now a reality. The ban went into effect Thursday and is now a part of formal University policy.
Finally, students can go to class or to a movie in the EMU Ballroom with the assurance that the air they breathe will be free of smoke. Finally, the majority of students who are not nicotine addicts will not have to breathe the fumes of someone else’s habit.
University President Robert Clark is to be commended for making the ban a part of the University policy. It was a necessary step, because non-smokers who, for reasons of health and/or comfort don’t wish to inhale smoke, have not been able to prevail upon smokers to confine their indulgence to uncrowded rooms and private places.
Clark’s decision was a long time in coming. He originally proposed the ban at the end of winter term. A student-led group was circulating petitions in favor of such a ban in February.
The interim period has allowed for a broad-based solicitation of input on the proposal. The fact that the opinions and evidence submitted to Clark in that time period overwhelmingly favored a smoking ban further solidifies its legitimacy as formal University policy.
It is now up to the University community to put the policy into effect and ask others to observe it.
This editorial is courtesy of the May 31, 1974, edition of the Oregon Daily Emerald.