Assembly votes on smoking ban

Smoking may become illegal in all dorms next year if a bill to ban smoking in college dormitories passes in the New Jersey State Assembly.

The State Senate passed the bill unanimously last week.

Earlier this year, the University enacted a smoking ban in undergraduate dorm rooms that will take effect this fall. The proposed law would extend the smoking ban to the Graduate College.

"If the State Legislature passes a bill, it would mean that smoking would be banned in the Graduate College as well as in the undergraduate dormitories," Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson said in an email.

The New Jersey Legislature is also debating another bill that targets smoking in indoor workplaces. The bill before the legislature would prohibit smoking in all public and semipublic places, including offices, bars and restaurants.

The ban would affect the D-bar, but eating clubs would be exempt, as the bill does not apply to private social clubs.

The bill would not affect University employees, who are already forbidden to smoke on the job except in designated areas exempt from the law, Dining Services Director Stu Orefice said.

Though the Graduate Student Government did not have an official position on the dorm smoking bill, some graduate students thought the law would infringe on their rights to manage their own affairs.

"Although I personally don't smoke, graduate students are adults and responsible enough to not start the dorm on fire," graduate student Jeff Dwoskin said.

Lior Silberman GS said in an email, "We should all be free to manage our health as we see fit."

"[The ban] would remove the freedom of Princeton and its students to manage their life, in favour of a policy dictated by outside agents," he said. "I fail to see how the state assembly can know what's best for us better than we can ourselves."

Graduate College residents have previously voted to allow smoking in student rooms and reaffirmed this position during the debate on the undergraduate ban.

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Currently, people who wish to smoke in the college are required to alter their activities or move if their smoking seriously bothers their neighbors. Residents are permitted to light candles and use fireplaces, Silberman said.

Nationwide, 66 students have died in smoking fires since 2000, according to the Center for Campus Fire Safety. Roughly 14 percent of all dorm fires are caused by smoking.

After a deadly fire killed three students at Seton Hall University in South Orange, the state passed a law mandating sprinklers in all dorms. Last month, 142 Drew University students were evacuated because of a fire caused by a smoker.