As a graduate student, I tend to spend some of my time at the Snell Library. I go there to research and print things mostly, or to find a quiet spot when no others are available.  With each visit, however, I find I’m forced into an aggravating, clumsy ballet to avoid the noxious fumes and plumes of cigarette smoke at the building’s entrance.

During the nearly 50 foot walk up the stairs to the library door, I must meander through huddled and grizzly smokers, making my visit even more unappealing, unhealthy and frankly annoying.  While there are a few “no smoking” illustrations, appropriately located on garbage cans, they appear to be ineffective, ignored or both.

In the event of inclement weather, too, all the Lindsay Lohan and James Dean rebel wannabes stand crowded underneath the covered entrance and drape the air with smoke, making each breath more brackish and damaging to my health.

Why our institution has yet to join nearby universities in promoting a smoke-free campus, or enforcing current smoking regulations, is beyond my knowledge. Yet, as Northeastern frequently reminds us in its advancement of the institutional and thematic goals anchored by “Health, Security and Sustainability,” I cannot help but find it both contradictory and curious to have so many people grossly interfere with our leading ambition.

Maybe other institutions wish to more actively embrace their goals, or perhaps they just value those traditionally academic things like progressive undertaking in the interests of public health. If Northeastern really wants to stand out among Boston universities, it should lead in this regard and establish a campus that encourages health and smoke-free lifestyles.

Also, before smokers read this and rise up to tell me about liberty, I would simply remind them  that healthy people had the right to fresh air first and, in our greater numbers, pay equally ridiculous tuition.  The rights to fresh air will always win compared to your never-cool habit, sorry. If you’d really like to talk about it, I’m open for a debate about your freedoms.  We can meet and go for a quick run to verbally duke it out.  Last one standing wins.

– Nick Dantzer is a graduate student pursuing a masters degree in public administration.