Beginning in September of next year all residence halls will be smoke free.
In addition, the Resident Student Association (RSA) is working on regulations for those students who smoke near the entryways of residence halls.
The decision from Housing Services to phase out smoking in all residence halls is a three- part plan that began three years ago when a smoking task force was formed under then Director of Residential Life M.L. Langlie, said Marina Iannalfo, associate dean of Housing Services. The third part of the plan will take effect in the fall when West Village A, 106 St. Stephen St., 110 St. Stephen St., Rubenstein Hall, Loftman Hall and Willis Hall will become smoke free, said Carrie Lemasa, assistant director of on-campus housing.
Phasing out smoking in the buildings came about as a safety concern and as a way to address the decreasing demand for lighting up in residence hall rooms.
“Fire safety is a major concern. This is why we do not allow candles, certain lights and certain cooking appliances students can bring. Smoking is just as dangerous,” Iannalfo said. “The demand for students who want to be able to smoke in their rooms is very, very small. Every year we see such a small percentage of students who request housing in smoking environments.”
During last year’s lottery, only 300 out of 5,000 upperclass housing applicants declared themselves as being smokers, Lemasa said.
Housing Services worked with RSA and the Student Government Association (SGA) on the three part plan and RSA is now taking it one step further.
Members of RSA and Hall Council are working on obtaining feedback from students and are trying to create designated smoking areas near residence halls or smoke-free zones near doorways. Once all the information is collected, RSA will convene a smoking task force to compile the data and make recommendations to Housing Services, said Margaret Horton, RSA president.
“The complaints of students have been brought to our attention on the issue of residents smoking directly outside of the doors, or smoke filtering into first floor windows. We are working to appease the needs of all students,” said Christina O’Sullivan, RSA vice president for housing services.
Appeasing all students might not be easy for RSA as students reacted differently to the news of eliminating smoking in residence halls.
“I picked Willis as my housing solely because I could smoke,” said Drew Champigny, a sophomore political science major. “It was my understanding that it’s the roommates’ decision; if all the roommates agree then it’s alright.”
However, when choosing housing during the housing lottery, Lemasa said it may not always be all of the roommates’ decision.
“For … upperclass buildings where smoking is permitted, the first person to select the room in the upperclass room selection process designates the smoking status for the whole apartment unit. So it is … unit by unit,” Lemasa said.
Non-smoking students said phasing out smoking in all the residence halls is a good idea.
“I think it’s good to have non-smoking dorms. I don’t think it’s fair for non-smoking students to have to walk through a cloud of smoke to leave the building,” said Marliese Kitchel, a senior behavioral neuroscience major.
Earlier this fall Boston University completed a similar gradual plan. All of its dormitories be-came smoke-free except the apartment-style dorms, said Marc Robillard, BU’s director of housing.
The only issue Robillard said he expects to face is as the weather becomes colder, students will be less willing to go outside and smoke. But other than that, he said the plan has worked well so far.
As far as he knows, Robillard said there have been no reported problems between smokers and non-smokers since the plan took effect.
Resident Assistants will be the primary enforcers of the new rules in any residence hall plan, just like they are now, and Iannalfo said enforcing the policy should not be a problem.
“I don’t foresee it being more or less an issue,” Iannalfo said.
– Correspondent Megan Fraser contributed to this report.
