Kent State smoking policies should change

Dear Editor,

Recently Kent City Council passed a law that all city buildings in Kent are to be smoke free. This is a step in the right direction for the city, but why hasn’t the university followed suit by removing smoking from the Student Center and creating a distance away from buildings for students to smoke?

Kent State University claims to be a key resource for economic and social advancement. So, why aren’t they taking steps to ensure the health of their students, staff and faculty?

Currently, smoking is permitted in the third floor lounge in the Student Center, The Rathskeller and outside all buildings. The last one wouldn’t bother me so much if they weren’t placed right outside the door, even though the current policy states “ashtrays will be placed at a reasonable distance outside some building entrances.”

To me, right next to the door is not a reasonable distance. I hate walking out or into a building and getting a big face full of smoke.

Last semester, several students worked hard to get resolutions passed and several people have written letters to the editor in support of a smoke-free campus. There was even a campus forum held about the issue. Why hasn’t Kent State stepped up to the plate and revised the policy?

Kent State University claims in its smoking policy that it “is dedicated to providing a healthy, comfortable and productive work and living environment for its employees and students.”

Isn’t a completely smoke free campus the only way to do this? Come on Kent State, step up to the plate already.

Jessica Shreve

President of Eta Sigma Gamma

Graduate student, health education and promotion

Chris Kok’s view of al-Qaida is all wrong

Dear Editor,

I found Mr. Chris Kok’s latest article about the military to be somewhat misleading.

Mr. Kok seems to suggest that if al-Qaida really hated freedom they would attack Europe. Yeah, I guess nations like the United Kingdom and Spain haven’t experienced any terrorist attacks in their recent past, correct? What about the school children of Beslan, Russia? What about the million of innocent Iraqis killed by al-Qaida?

Al-Qaida has attacked Europe because not all people killed on Sept. 11 were American.

Sept. 11 was an attack on western culture, not America in general. That is the significance of attacking a building called the World Trade Center.

Al-Qaida’s purpose is to stomp out all democratic and progressive progress made in the Middle East and instead build an Islamic Caliphate. In this Caliphate, propaganda and conspiracy theories will become the norm, much in the same fashion of European Fascism. And it will be in this theocratic state where an 18-year-old man looks forward to becoming a suicide bomber, not a college student. Al-Qaida is at war with freedom, not imperialism.

Finally, the argument that Europe is somehow more free than us is weak at best. Germany still has a mandatory draft for 18-year-old males. Luxembourg has compulsory voting. Some countries have outlawed firearms. France doesn’t allow Muslim women to wear head scarves. Yet somehow, the only thing you need to be more free than the United States is pot cafes and nude beaches?

Michael Kapronica

2006 Alumni