Few PU students fuming over proposed smoking ban

New measure would extend to dormitory rooms.

By: David Campbell
   Under a policy now being formulated, Princeton University undergraduates will not be allowed to smoke in their dormitory rooms starting this fall.
   Janet S. Dickerson, the university’s vice president for Campus Life, said Tuesday that she has accepted student recommendations to prohibit smoking in undergraduate dormitories. She cited concerns about the harmful effects of secondhand smoke; the potential fire hazard posed by dorm room smokers; and the importance of keeping in step with peer institutions.
   Ms. Dickerson has asked that students be involved in formulating the regulations implementing the new policy, which becomes effective in the fall.
   Currently, smoking is prohibited in all common areas of Princeton’s undergraduate dormitories and residential colleges. It also is prohibited in classrooms and offices on campus.
   However, smoking is permitted in residential rooms, but smokers can be asked to stop smoking or move from the area if the smoking elicits complaints from fellow students living in the dorm, said senior Juan Lessing.
   Mr. Lessing is former student co-chairman with Ms. Dickerson of the Undergraduate Life Committee, which recommended the smoking ban. The new co-chairman starting this term is sophomore Tom Brown, Mr. Lessing said.
   The advisory committee is a group of students, faculty and administrators whose goal is to improve the quality of life for undergraduates at Princeton.
   Last fall, during Mr. Lessing’s tenure as co-chair, the group began looking into the possibility of smoke-free housing. The recommended ban was the result of what the former co-chair described as a "collaborative, unbiased" review with ample feedback from students, university administrators and public-safety experts.
   "We tried to involve as many different groups and students as possible," he said. "As we found out more about it, the more it made sense to recommend this change. This is something that is necessary."
   Mr. Lessing said the committee’s recommendations include one that smoking-cessation classes be offered free of charge to students as he said they are to university faculty and staff. He said all other Ivy League universities and many other colleges and universities in the country already have bans on smoking in dormitory rooms.
   He said the recommended ban is something that the majority of students at Princeton favor, and noted that many who at first opposed a ban, after learning more, either changed their minds or at least better understood why the issue was being looked at.
   "My goal going into this was, how can we protect the rights of as many people as possible, and accommodate those who wish to smoke?" Mr. Lessing said. "Our recommendations were based on what we saw to be the realities of our campus."
   Ms. Dickerson said a dorm-room smoking ban has been under consideration for several years at Princeton. She said the committee’s canvassing of the university community determined that "a vast number of Princeton undergraduates strongly support smoke-free housing.
   "The (Undergraduate Life Committee) also noted its respect for individual rights to smoke but found this right did not outweigh the rights of others to be free of secondhand smoke," Ms. Dickerson said.
   The committee cited several factors in recommending the new policy, including new information about the risks of secondhand smoke and smoking in college.
   The committee cited a study by the Harvard School of Public Health that found that college students who live in smoke-free residence halls are 40 percent less likely to take up smoking than their counterparts who live in housing where smoking is permitted.
   About 35 fire alarms annually are set off on campus due to smoking, and there have been fires caused by smoking in rooms, including a 1993 fire that caused minor injuries to a student, the evacuation of 150 students and $350,000 in damage, the committee found.
   The committee also cited a 2004 health survey showing that less than 17 percent of undergraduates smoke, and that of those, about 85 percent said they hope to stop smoking before they graduate. A Web survey with 275 respondents showed that 63 percent of undergraduates supported smoke-free housing, the university said.