Tobacco.org

EDDIE: Open letter to the Tobacco Workgroup  

We write this open letter on behalf of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a campus group that promotes sensible and effective approaches to policies regarding tobacco and other drugs. Naturally, our members are concerned about the efforts to ban smoking on the Morningside campus. More important than our stance on the issue, however, is our concern with the process by which this policy change may take place.

As we understand, a survey to gauge student opinion was sent last spring, receiving less-than-impressive levels of response. In addition, a town hall meeting was held last week. While all attendees of the meeting opposed the current proposal, according to the straw poll survey conducted, the turnout was still relatively low.

We believe this reaction is a result of the timing and advertisement of the e-mail and town hall meeting, and not indicative of the opinions of the student body. . . .

Despite what the town hall meeting and initial survey might suggest, our group maintains that the student body is far from apathetic. A few weeks ago, our group hosted an event on the steps of Low to raise awareness of the proposed ban. In just over one hour, we were able to collect the names and signatures of 75 students who opposed the proposal. We believe that our ability to collect signatures at such a high rate—more than one per minute—demonstrates that there is strong campus interest about this issue. The problem is that students are unaware of any ways to vocalize their thoughts to the administration and the Tobacco Workgroup.

Given the importance of this proposal and the large impact it would have on smokers and nonsmokers alike, as well as for cultural groups on campus that smoke hookah, we would like to open the path for dialogue about the proposal between the student body, the administration, and the Tobacco Workgroup.

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