In response to Pamela Mills’ article in the Nov. 8 edition of the “Houstonian,” I have but one thing to say: I agree with you, and then again I don’t.
I am not a smoker. I despise smoking as a habit and believe it to be a sign of personal weakness, as is any addiction. I don’t believe smokers on SHSU campus should be segregated. However, I think there is a logical solution to the problem before us. Upon leaving any building, I generally have to hack, cough and wheeze my way through a group of smokers gathered around the doorways of the building. My solution:would it be too much to ask for the smokers to find a place a bit further away from the doorways of buildings to smoke? Maybe give a 10 to 15 foot area of no smoking so that us non-smokers can have a walkway and not be bombarded with the smell of nicotine and tobacco from the moment we leave a building. I really don’t think this is being illogical or asking too much.
My area of greatest disagreement with the article is the comparison of alcoholism to smoking ON campus.
Yes, off campus there are many arrests and citations for drinking. However, when was the last time you had to push your way though a large crowd of drunken guys or girls outside of Estill or the LDB? Never.
Alcoholism is a problem for our students off campus, however I personally have never run into anyone on campus who has been public intoxicated or drunk.
The issue of the original article was smoking on-campus, and the writer of “Smokers do not cause all of the problems” brings an off-campus problem to relate to an on-campus issue. The two issues are totally different and need to be handled in different ways.
I have no problem with people who choose to smoke; you have free will, and if you are willing to pipe that much money into something so temporary, then go ahead I won’t stop you. However, show non-smokers some respect. There are some smokers who do an excellent job of keeping their smoke away from others, but a vast majority of smokers seem to not care who they bother with their smoke. Simple respect is what is being asked for, not a change in life style and definitely not segregation.