College Publisher Test Site

As a non-smoker, I have the right to breathe clean air and not have cigarette smoke blown into my face. I also have the right to not see cigarette butts lying all over the grounds of ABAC. However, just as I know I have these rights, I also respect the rights of those who choose to smoke and to do so in a manner that will not jeopardize their safety.

New rules for Place Properties have restricted smoking areas to across the street on the corner beside the baseball field. I think this is unfair to the smokers. There is hardly any light at this corner and the residents of Place Properties did not get to voice their opinion before this rule was handed down.

I can see that Place Properties wants to keep their grounds looking nice, but at what cost do they have that right? If these girls have to go across the street to smoke a cigarette, it could cost them more than their health. It could cost them their safety, too.

These residents could be abducted, hit by a passing car or worse. The location is far enough away from the building so if something were to happen no one would be able to notice any commotion. Literally, no one can hear you scream.

Both parties need to show respect for one another. I have no problem with residents smoking outside the doors of ABAC Place if it is away from the entrances. I have not had any problem at all with this so far. I have a roommate who is a smoker and she smokes away from the doors in an open area. I know this for a fact because I walk downstairs and talk with her while she smokes. I haven't smelt smoke once while outside with her, and I am sensitive to cigarette smoke.

However, one day when it was raining, my roommate was under the outside stairs so she wouldn't get wet, smoking, when a girl came over and harassed her about her supposed cloud of smoke that she couldn't seemingly avoid.

All this just because she was a fanatical non-smoker. I can see that the non-smoker did not want to breathe in smoke, but where was my roommate supposed to go? Why couldn't the non-smoker walk around her? Yes, that was a non-smoking area, but common sense has to be used.

You can't very well tell someone to go out in the pouring rain just so that they can support their habit.

In the past these residents, when they lived in Chandler Hall, could smoke in their rooms if they lived in a designated smoking room or outside in a well lighted and populated area in front of the building, away from the doors. This policy was fine by both sides because the smokers had a safe place to smoke and the non-smokers wouldn't breathe in the smoke, unless they went out of their way to walk through it.

I think the residents of Place Properties should be heard on this issue. There needs to be a meeting were both smokers and non-smokers can voice their opinion about a new option for a smoking section because the one that ABAC Place has now will cause problems in the future.

If someone were to be hurt because ABAC did not supply adequate security in a poorly lighted unsafe environment there would be far-reaching consequences that would change ABAC for all time. How would the parents of ABAC Place residents feel when they learn that their child was hurt because they had to cross the street to smoke?

Also how would the alumni see this when they are writing out their checks to donate to the school when its brought to their attention that a young woman was injured because of a stupid rule that wasn't even voted on by residents?

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