By Victor Ocasio
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It comes as no surprise to anyone in the modern world, thanks to the billions of dollars spent yearly on anti-smoking campaigns of course, that smoking is an unhealthy lifestyle choice that carries with it risk for serious diseases such as lung cancer and emphysema.

With that said, the choice to smoke is exactly that. A choice. All responsibility from negative effects lie solely with the individual and despite this editor’s suggestion that readers should refrain from picking up the habit, ultimately the decision is not mine.

College campuses worldwide are bustling institutions with strict deadlines, challenging course work and carry within them an underlying stressful tone as it prepares people for a complicated job market.

Some deal with stress differently than others and if lighting up a cigarette is what they choose to do, then as long they do so in the appropriate designated areas, far be it from myself to obstruct their rights to do so.

At the collegiate level administrations and faculty members are dealing with students that, with the exception of some dual-enrolled high schoolers, are adults and thus should be given the same respect regardless of what personal actions they take in their private lives.

Their education is something that is not simply given to them and while financial aid has, for many, offered the opportunity to pursue higher learning, the very real responsibility to pay for their time in school falls upon them.

With that in mind, and with consideration to what other areas in life mandate, catering for paid services, the issue with smoking on campus is something that really isn’t one.

As long as someone is a registered student, employed staff, or faculty member and has every legal right to be on campus, there should be no doubt regarding their right to engage in the unhealthy but nationally accepted act of cigarette or cigar smoking at school.