Starting September 2012, smoking will be verboten throughout CUNY, the nation's largest urban public university. Last night the trustees voted to ban smoking on all 23 campuses, a decision that will affect some students more than others, because many of the schools don't actually have campuses in the traditional sense. But as the Times notes, the campuses of City College, Queens College, College of Staten Island and Lehman College, among others, will see the air clear.
Karen Kaplowitz, a professor of literature at John Jay College, was relieved by the decision, telling the Times, "Before this ban, we would have had to permit smoking. But now we’re going to have a beautiful, tobacco-free campus in the middle of Manhattan that is unthreatened by cigarette smoke and butts." But at City College, non-smoking sophomore Dan Cardillo decided, "I think it’s a stupid thing to do. It’s a college campus. We should be treated like adults. If it’s not illegal, they should not ban it here." Of course, the way things are going, smoking could be all but illegal in most public spaces soon enough.
The City Council is moving forward with a plan to prohibit smoking in city-run parks, beaches, and boardwalks; yesterday Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer said she expects a vote next month. And Pamela Mohr at the American Cancer Society of Manhattan says it's about time: "It's worth repeating, there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke... Beyond limiting exposure to a known cancer causing substance, this policy should have another far-reaching effect. Tobacco companies love college students, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to hook young adults into a lifelong addiction. This action will re-enforce the message to students that cigarettes are both dangerous and deadly."
