MAY 26, 1972
How Many Students Smoke During School?
Thirty-eight percent of the kids at Maine admit to smoking, while 28 percent of these students who smoke have been suspended by the dean for smoking in the school. It was argued that the suspension takes away from valuable learning time and perhaps even causes a lowering of grades. If an outside smoking area were established on the school grounds, harder penalties could be enforced for violations of the no smoking in the building restriction.
The survey was a successful attempt by Council to relay valid student opinion and to improve the weak communication lines between Student Council and the student body. The road to better communication is presently blocked by the great
Council has shown signs of self-determination through the evaluation that was offered during homeroom. It has shown a genuine interest in improving communication between not only Council and the school, but on a more personal level between Council representative and homeroom, and even student to student.
The democratic form of our country's government has given us an abstraction called freedom, but freedom is nothing else but a chance to do better. Council is taking advantage of this inborn right and is attempting improvements.
In conclusion, it must be submitted that the Executive Committee has denied permission to set up a smoking area using this rational: "Our basic reason for denying your request is that the Surgeon General of the U.S. rates cigarette smoking as one of our most serious health problems." Admittedly the Council has suffered a setback, but it has also established a workable precedent for next year's student government.