Students divided on tobacco ban

Since OU enacted a tobacco-free policy this summer, students have been divided on the issues of students’ rights and public health.  Though the university now has designated smoking areas, many believe that tobacco use is a personal choice, and should not be prohibited by law. 

A tobacco-free campus is not a new concept.  The OU Health Sciences Center began setting up designated smoking huts long before the Norman campus enacted a tobacco-free rule. 

Junior industrial and systems engineering major Sarah Yung supports the tobacco ban.

“I love being able to walk around campus and not smell the smoke,” Yung said.  “I think the new policy has been a really positive change for everyone on campus.”

One major point against smoking is the risk of secondhand smoke. 

“Secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths and 35,000 heart disease deaths every year in nonsmokers,” according to the Healthy Sooners website. 

However, some students view this as an irrelevant point supporting the tobacco ban, since smoking on campus does not usually take place in an enclosed area, according to an OU Daily article on the ban. 

Psychology senior Duke Lambert said he worries about the effect the tobacco ban will have on his professors. 

“After having paid the university money, I would like my professors to be able to teach at their full capacity rather than being angry or irritated just because they can’t walk outside, have a cigarette real quick and come back inside and give me a good lesson,” Lambert said. 

OU Health Services offers a variety of free services to help smokers with the transitions to a tobacco-free campus. 

“Tobacco kills more people a year than alcohol, cocaine, heroin, suicide, car accidents, fire, and AIDS combined,” according to the OU Health Services website.

Services include free tobacco cessation classes and kits including various types of medication to ease the process.

Chemical engineering junior Lauren Gilbert said she believes that the policy has made a difference on campus.

“I think the policy has been working so far,” Gilbert said.  “I’ve seen a few people smoking, but not nearly as many as I used to.”

As for the topic of student rights, Gilbert said she does not think that this issue falls within a violation of those rights.

“I don’t see it as a violation of student rights because there are lots of rights that students have in other places that they don’t have on the university, like the right to bear arms or to have alcohol,” Gilbert said. 

OU student Duke Lambert talks about his opinion on the tobacco ban.