and non-smokers were welcome, the notice said. No other announcement appeared until the day of the meeting. (You can probably already guess where this is going.)On the day of the meeting, I drove the 20 minutes from my campus to our main campus. There were maybe a dozen people there. I was one of two smokers. Several people spoke about students gathering in doorways and the “gauntlet” non-smokers had to walk through to get into buildings. Others complained about the litter from cigarette butts, and even the smoke that came in from outside vents smelling up their offices. Some of the complaints seemed legitimate and less to do with health than the smell.
When it came my turn to speak, I questioned how they expected to enforce a ban from entire campuses when they couldn’t even enforce the 25′ rule from entrances.
I also mentioned how 10-minute breaks would certainly turn into 20 or 30-minute breaks, and how the students on our campus, which caters primarily to minority and lower-income students, would not take to this ban very well, undoubtedly defy it, and perhaps even stop coming to class.
What would be the consequences if students defied the ban, I asked? I also posed the question whether it was the job of an educational institution to act as surrogate parents to adult students, especially since many of ours are well into their 20’s and even their 30’s and 40’s. I could tell I was not the smoker they had in mind when they invited smokers to this meeting.
During the discussion, one non-smoker, who didn’t like the ban, asked what the reaction would be if the college planned to have a “Gay Free” campus.
A couple of people balked that being gay doesn’t affect anyone else’s health. I started to point out that we need to be careful about making such comparisons, when the chairwoman of the meeting abruptly cut me off. I told her that I wasn’t finished. Her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed as she told me that she had cut me off because everything I had had to say was completely “anecdotal” to the conversation.
I guess, as a smoker, I was supposed to feel appropriately chastised and put in my place, even though I hadn’t brought up the “gay” connection in the first place.
A few minutes later, after a few more people had related anecdotal stories about how they had been affected by the smell of second-hand smoke around campus, there was a pause in the discussion.
I asked permission to speak. I wasn’t trying to be smart, but I guess Madame Chairwoman thought I was. She chastised me again for being anecdotal. “Everything that everybody at this table has said,” I informed her, “has been anecdotal. You just didn’t like what I had to say.” She shut up, and I continued to talk.
This is how these meetings go. We smokers are “welcome” only if we come repentant and show a desire to change our evil ways. Otherwise, it can be a very hostile environment. It will be interesting to see if we have any more meetings, and if I will be invited.
Originally written By: Richard Maynard
