Smokers across campus expressed outrage upon receiving the news that UVM is set to implement a campus-wide tobacco-free initiative.
First-year Sarang Murthy said he was “not happy” after reading the email sent out March 24 about making UVM a completely tobacco- free campus.
“UVM should move forward in becoming a tobacco free campus,” according to an email from Jan Carney and Tom Gustafson, co-chairs of the steering committee for the tobacco free initiative at UVM.
The committee researched other universities across the country that are smoke- free both indoors and outdoors and looked at their approaches for implementing these policies. There are about 1,200 schools in the U.S., including UMass Amherst, that are 100 percent smoke free, according to the committee’s webpage.
“In the email they said they wanted an open dialogue about it, but it seemed that they had already decided to makeUVM smoke free. Is this an autocracy? There ought to be designated smoking areas instead of completely banning it from campus,” Murthy said.
The email cites statistics such as the death toll in the U.S. from smoking annually: more than 480,000. In an experiment a cigarette was dropped into a fish tank and half the fish in the tank died as a result, according to the website.
“I think it was good that they enforced the smoke free zone in front of the library. People have a right to smoke, but people also have a right to clean air,” SGA senator Savannah Miller said.
