Should Lamar University be a tobacco-free campus?

Cities across the country are doing it every day, but should colleges be 100% smoke-free too?  That's the question lingering around Lamar University tonight after an editorial in the school's newspaper, last week, raised the issue.

The question is in black and white.. should Lamar University be a tobacco-free campus?  The answer, according to students, is gray.

Senior Amber Elliot said, "We have rights to not smoke, to have clean air and they have rights to smoke whenever they want."

"I think people have the right to smoke if they want to," said freshman Justice Flyod, "But just not if it's bothersome to other people, or the appearance of the university."

Senior, and long-time smoker, Mitch Anderson said, "It's our decision to smoke, why can't we make our own decision on where we wanna make our decision"

The issue, posed in an opinion piece in the University Presspaper, targets campus tobacco users' popular places to take a puff... building entrances and exits.

Flyod said, "They do kind of crowd around the doors and a lot of it kind of gets in your face... it's bothersome."

"They already have that 25 foot rule," said Anderson, "But I can understand that, nobody wants to walk through a cloud of smoke to go to class, especially a non-smoker."

The editorial's author also complains the signs of smoking aren't just 'up in the air,' they're on the ground.

"We have a nice building, and it doesn't look very nice when those are around," Elliot said.

Senior James Cooper said, "There are a lot of visitors, children that come from elementaries around here so them to see that, I wouldn't want them to pick those up."

Of the opinions KFDM found on campus, on this opinion piece, most lean toward having a designated smoking area, as opposed to no smoking areas at all.

Cooper said, "I do think it should be appropriate to have it in certain spots."

"Maybe not congregating by the doors," said Anderson, "But on the other hand, we just want to smoke and go in too."

"When it's hazardous to everybody," said Elliot, "I think it's a health risk more than freedom."

There are almost 400 college campuses across the country at are 100% smoke-free.  In Texas, there are 16, including the University of Texas-Arlington and San Jacinto College-South Campus in Houston.