Beginning the day after commencement this year, Residence Life will implement a new policy with regard to student smoking in the residence halls. The new policy bans smoking in all residence halls, including student rooms, and requires smokers to be “at least 25 feet away from any entrance, awning, window, or building opening.”
Through discussions with the Institute’s legal counsel, Charles Carletta, the department determined that this move was necessary to bring the Institute into compliance with the New York State Clean Indoor Air Act. The timing means that students staying in the residence halls for the summer semesters and in the future will not be able to indicate a preference for “smoker-friendly” rooms as those rooms will become non-smoking rooms as well.
Even with the ability to select a smoker-friendly room, a resident could only smoke in the room if the other occupant agreed to allow it. Details of the new policy will be distributed to all students who elect to go through any phase of the room selection process this year. The text is also available on the Residence Life website. Suggestions or comments about the policy are invited by the Office of Residence Life at extension 6284, or by e-mail at res_life@rpi.edu.
In their release to The Polytechnic, Residence Life cited a memorandum to the system of State University of New York campuses, mandating that they become smoke-free by July 1, 2007. Also cited were statistics for the incoming Class of 2010. On their housing preference cards, only three students indicated that they were smokers. In other surveys from 2004 and 2005, over 82 percent of students indicated that they would prefer smoke-free housing on campus.
Regarding the new policy, Vice President of Student Life Eddie Ade Knowles said, “We need to do this, and we need to do this in a way that gives the people who are thinking about signing up to live in the residence halls time to consider whether or not they want to do it.” He added, “It’s the right thing to do from a policy standpoint, and it’s the right thing to do when you consider the issues of the safety, health, and well-being of the students on campus.”
According to USA Today, at least 43 campuses across the nation have gone smoke-free. The same article cited that nearly 31 percent of full-time college students smoke as compared to 25 percent for the general population.
Smoking has played a role in area fires as recently as February 20, when a resident on the second floor of a building at 16th and Hoosick fell asleep with a lit cigarette, starting an early morning fire which destroyed the entire building including the first-floor Domino’s Pizza shop. There were no injuries and the building was razed later in the day.
