It's October, Columbia, which, aside from meaning good things on the baseball and pumpkin fronts, means that the University Senate's town hall on a campus-wide smoking ban is coming up. I've written on this topic before, but I wanted to write again and offer one more point on why I don't think this silliness should be passed.
My biggest problem with the ban is that it would make being a smoker on Columbia's campus extremely difficult. I can understand bans on smoking in public places like restaurants or parks, because people don't live in those restaurants and are not required to enter those parks (or not required to smoke there, anyway). But many Columbians who smoke live on campus, and all of them are required to spend vast amounts of time here. In making it so difficult to be a smoker on campus, the University Senate is interfering with the right we all have to choose to smoke, and is sending a very hostile message to certain friends and colleagues of ours.
