An open letter to the BSU Student Senate

I am a student at BSU living in Pine Hall. As of late there has been much ado about this proposed smoking ban on campus. As a resident of this school, I am wondering why. Who would want to enact such legislation? Frankly, what is the point?

To recap the score, Beltrami County has joined Olmsted County in imposing a county wide ban on smoking in public places. Knowing the local politics of Olmsted County, I can give them a pass due to their ideology. The city of Duluth has also imposed a similar ban. The ban in Duluth has been a goldmine for the city of Superior, as the free willed individual will make the 2 minute commute across the border to drink in Wisconsin. Rochester has shot itself in the foot in the same manner regarding lost revenue.

Here at BSU, you have a choice weather you wish to live on campus or not. You also have to the choice, if you wish to live on campus, weather you wish to live on a smoking floor, or even in a dorm with a smoking allowed at all. With all these choices, I wonder who would want to impose a ban on smoking in smoking dorms? They are smoking dorms, shouldn’t smokers be able to smoke in them?

I was reading the school’s newspaper last week, and I found a person’s letter, who was in favor of such a ban. This person did not in fact live on campus, but lived off campus. This irks me to such a degree. You see, this person can afford to live off campus in the smoking environment of her choice. With a smoking ban on campus, she could still smoke in her domicile. Yet she has a voice weather I can make the same decision on campus. Some people have it all.

After reading this essay I thought about the ban on drinking on campus. This woman does not have to adhere to this ban, although I do, even though I’m 25 years of age. Let’s say the Student Senate bans the drinking of alcohol for all students in their place of residency (and had some way of enforcing this). Would this student be so quick to change the rules on her fellow student?

As to the issue of this vote on a smoking ban, I wonder why there is a general vote in the first place. Think about it. Would the US have a general election to select the governor of Minnesota? Of course not. This is the difference between a republic and anarchy. I did a hypothetical case study. Let’s say that every resident of the State of Minnesota wanted Al Stewart to be the next governor of Minnesota, and every resident of Cook County Illinois wanted Alice Cooper to be the governor of Minnesota. Cook County has more people than the whole state of Minnesota, but they don’t live here. So why would Alice Cooper have to be our new governor? What does the voice of those who don’t live here have to do with us in a statewide decision?

My point lies in here. If there is to be a total dorm-wide ban on smoking, should we not ask only those who live on smoking floors, or in buildings that contain these floors? Personally I wonder what great knowledge some 17 year old freshman has over a grown man who has been around the block a few times? The answer, in all but a couple cases, is nothing. The vote on this matter should be contained to those who it would effect at all. Those who live on smoking floors, or in smoking buildings. And even at that, you could make only one dorm exclusively smoking, and fill it. A total ban on smoking is wrong in concept and it will prove so in practice. This proposed ban will equal less students living on campus, which will equal less revenue for the school, which will equal higher tuition and living fees.

I also want to know who wants to impose this ban on myself and every other person who lives on a smoking floor. I want names, because if I find out who you are I’m gonna try and offend you. I might even go as so far as smoke in my own room.