While Tufts Health Services recent campaign educates on drug and alcohol use, the presence of smoking on the Hill is also worth considering.
Regardless of any efforts to denounce drugs and alcohol, a number of smokers can always be found outside of Tisch Library, at the tables outside of the Mayer Campus Center and in other high-traffic areas. With other universities in the Boston area such as Northeastern University, Harvard Medical School, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and even Tufts Boston campus banning smoking on their campuses altogether, Tufts Medford/Somerville campus seems to be an outlier.
The university policy on smoking follows Massachusetts state law by banning smoking in all university buildings, residence halls, fraternities and sororities and entranceways. However, students may need to be reminded of university protocol, which requires students to smoke a minimum of 20 feet away from all residence halls, as explained by the Office of Residential Life and Learning in Habitats. Tisch Library has a sign instructing smokers to keep their distance from the entrance to the building. This rule is rarely observed, as students can often be spotted lighting up right outside the librarys doors.
It is the responsibility of the university to make sure that regulations concerning smoking are both read and respected by all students on campus. But the responsibility also lies with students to honor designated smoke-free areas, such as inside and around university buildings and residence halls. In addition, a major flaw in the universitys regulation of smoking is its positioning of ashtrays immediately next to the entrances of academic buildings and residence halls. Ashtrays should at least be placed 20 feet away from the buildings, so as to enforce both the distance rule and to encourage the appropriate disposal of tobacco products.
As public health and the environment become greater concerns in todays society, it is important that Tufts stays on top of tobacco use on campus Although the university should not ban smoking entirely on campus, as smoking is a legal act under Massachusetts state law, it should certainly enforce its policies in an effort to keep the community clean and its inhabitants healthy.
