President McCardell Approves New Smoking Policy

Author: Edward Pickering

Changes to Middlebury College's smoking policy will take effect as soon as President John McCardell formally accepts the recommendation he received from Community Council.
The Community Council's recommendation stipulates that, "each residential hallway shall determine, by majority vote of its residents at the beginning of every year, if students may smoke in their rooms. If the hallway votes in favor, students may smoke in their rooms, provided it is mutually agreeable to their roommate(s) and to those who may be affected in adjacent areas. Smoking is not permitted in lounges, hallways, stairwells, bathrooms, or other public areas in student residences."
Said McCardell of the recommendations presented to him, "I deeply appreciate the work that has gone into the framing of the Council's recommendation, and the fact that the recommendation came to me unanimously (with one abstention) is not lost on me, nor should it be lost on the wider community."
McCardell's acceptance of the recommendations represents the final step in a long process that began last fall when Students for a Smoke-Free Middlebury developed a proposal that would have significantly restricted smoking on campus. The Community Council, who received the proposal on Dec 2, deferred judgment on the matter until the Student Government Association (SGA) weighed in.
According to SGA President Ginny Hunt '03, the SGA senate opposed the original proposal due "to an apparent lack of consensus among the student body." "We agreed that such a drastic change not be made without a comfortable majority of students in support," continued Hunt. "Also, questions about implementation concerned many students. Finally, the SGA questioned the Smoke Free Initiative process and apparent lack of clarity in mission."
Taking matters into its own hands, the SGA formed an ad-hoc committee, chaired by Senior Senator Fahim Ahmed '03. The committee, which gathered information about smoking on campus, devised and presented a proposal that was passed by the SGA. The Community Council then passed the same proposal, paving the way for significant revision of the current smoking policy.
Said student co-chair of Community Council Ben LaBolt '03 of the process, "The creation of the residential smoking policy went through an extensive process soliciting input from all parts of the community and reaffirmed the democratic way in which the College community approaches policy and disagreements."
McCardell considered the matter carefully before reaching his decision. "I fully understand the competing claims of freedom, health, and safety in this matter," he said. When all those claims are weighed, any decision that results will be imperfect."
Concluded McCardell, "I believe that accepting the Community Council recommendation represents the least imperfect decision. I also know that, whatever the decision might have been, the issue would not have disappeared. I thus expect we will find ourselves reengaging it, though I hope not immediately."