<p>We have an older daughter, who graduated from college in 2002, and now we are preparing ourselves to send our HS junior twins to college next year (class 2020).</p>
<p>We, parents, never smoked, and neither do our older daughter - when we were in college ourselves, we were the outcasts. Yet, I remember very well from her HS and college days the way she described tobacco being a mainstay of parties, and even the occasional meeting with a more stubborn old professor ignoring non-smoke rules. She had several of her HS friends try and then start smoking to varying degrees (this was in late 1990s). </p>
<p>Now, to the extent our twins share information with us, tobacco is much more frowned upon among most students. Many consider it a dirty and unattractive thing, especially if one wants to date in their high schools. It appears that cigarettes have become a marginal activity, and lost its ‘cool’ factor.</p>
<p>So I ask parents of current residential college students: has this attitude reached college already? Are indoor smoking bans respected in regard of offices? Do your children have to go out of their way to avoid smokers in social events and parties?</p>
<p>Well from touring many colleges it appeared that college kids do a lot of smoking. However, many schools, including the one my daughter attends), are becoming smoke free campuses. I would think that smoking is banned in any indoor space on most campuses (by state or city laws) and that these are enforced (as best they can). However college kids can be resourceful and have been known to block smoke detectors to smoke pot (and maybe cigarettes as well).</p>
<p>My D, a college senior, is a non smoker and none of her close friends are smokers. I am not on her campus often (it is 1500 miles away), though I know there are students there that smoke, even though the campus is supposed to be smoke free. I don’t think the smokers are in a majority.</p>
<p>I don’t think college kids can afford cigarettes in most places. </p>
<p>I smoked when I was college age. The other day I was behind someone buying cigarettes up in New York. I could not believe how much they paid for two packs of cigarettes and a pack of gum. What college kid could afford that? And what person in their right mind would PAY that?</p>
<p>College kids smoke and they vape which is friendlier to the environment.
E cigarettes are socially acceptable where indoor smoking is banned.
Hookah is also popular with college kids.
Avoiding people because they smoke or drink is cutting out a large group of interesting people you can meet in college.
Your kids will make their own decisions, they are fully aware of their parents’ opinion against smoking.
Remind them it is a legal activity and loudly over reacting to the smell of smoke on someone’s clothes or in the air is rude and annoying.</p>
<p>It really varies from one campus to another. It’s something my kids and I paid attention to on tours. I do think the vaping is less annoying for others to have to deal with so there is a plus for that. </p>
<p>Through the years I have lamented the fact that my cc students are so financially deprived on paper, yet they smoked like chimneys. I used to have an office whose window was positioned at the corner of the building and I could see them walking down the sidewalk smoking and they would also congregate outside my office window. Local laws now forbid smoking inside of public buildings and within so many feet of the building, so we now have designated smoking areas. I don’t see as much smoking from my new office window, but still a fair amount. However, my campus is going smoke free next August and the only smoking permitted will be in cars in the parking lot. It won’t solve the problem, but it will make it better. My mother died of COPD and I know what their futures hold if they can’t shake it.</p>
<p>My D was just discussing smoking at her campus. They have international students in her dorm. Many of these students smoke cigarettes. They are supposed to be 20ish feet away from the dorm entrance outside. Well, no one wants to adhere to that regulation, and so non-smokers have to wade thru the smoke in order to enter/exit. I hate when that happens, especially just after I’ve washed my hair. It is America, and people have a right to smoke, but I am glad that at least indoors it is illegal. Remember bars and restaurants in the old days.</p>
<p>At $10 pack in my area, if you are even a social smoker, its going to get costly ~ few packs a week and you’re looking at over $120/month. I sure as heck would not be footing college tuition for a kid that thought it was okay to blow that kind of money on anything unhealthy while I’m struggling to keep up with college debt…fwiw, that includes fast food, alcohol and weed.</p>
<p>I don’t have a current child in college, but I teach college. I would say that less than 5% of my students smell obviously of smoke when I am speaking with them before or after class, and most smell like marijuana smoke not tobacco smoke. There seems to be less stigma associated with smoking pot than smoking tobacco, I would say except for foreign students who smoke tobacco more often.</p>
<p>At one point, I had two students in a class of twelve who always smelled of pot, every class, and one accused the other of dealing and “being a druggie” yet he smelled like he just walked off the set of Cheech and Chong’s latest movie. It is rather difficult to be sympathetic when not only does the student smell of pot, but he writes you long emails with no punctuation, no capitalization, and no paragraphing.</p>
<p>Employees of the university also smoke a lot more than students, and they and students who smoke do not follow university rules in terms of distance between them and the building entrances.</p>
<p>I feel that in general, there is less smoking in certain areas of the country, and a lot more smoking in other areas. The South in particular seems to have a lot of smokers as compared to the Northeast, unless you get into a rural area.</p>
<p>I’ve sent two kids to colleges (three between them) and I have worked at several colleges. as far as indoor smoking–I’d be shocked to see anyone smoke in offices, classrooms, etc. that’s been banned for so many years that it would just be seen as outrageously out of line.</p>
<p>As far as students, I think less of them smoked when my D was in college (2004 grad) or my S (more recent), and even less now. My understanding is that is has been in steady decline for quite a long time, at least in the Northeast. My adult kids do have friends who smoke, but not many, and they automatically take it outside. Smoking at an indoor gathering just isn’t done. Interesting about the CC students referenced above–seems like an outlier to me–do they tend to be older?</p>
<p>My cc smokers are a mixed bag, @garland - both traditional and non-traditional. I live in a Southern state that was a big tobacco producer, so it’s more accepted here than in many other areas. Having grown up in a home where both my parents smoked, I never really knew how bad it smelled until I went away to college. I have to try to remember that when some students come to my office smelling so bad from the smoke that I want to gag. </p>
<p>They may be smoking weed at some point as well, but I don’t ever really encounter that during the classroom hours. I guess I’m pretty naive sometimes because I was completely surprised in May to read in my local paper that a student had been arrested for dealing heroin. I would have completely believed that he was smoking weed, but that was pretty astounding.</p>
<p>Although smoking rates have supposedly gone down, it seems that a local (non-residential) art school usually has lots of smokers outside its front door.</p>
<p>2vu–that makes sense. Smoking overall isn’t as common in NJ, and smoking bans have been in effect and supported by most for many years, so the whole approach is different.</p>
<p>I do know that heroin use has skyrocketed in the state, as everywhere, apparently, because they don’t need to shoot up; they snort it now. I am pretty sure it’s in the high schools too.</p>
<p>While it may be ‘out of fashion for many’, I know some otherwise smart students (top school) that were raised to know better who smoke. They will be the first to tell you they wish they hadn’t started, but find it too hard to stop. And, as noted above, the hookah is indeed a popular phenomena, even with those who do not regularly smoke cigarettes. </p>
<p>I think it must vary campus to campus. My Ds have all graduated, a few many years ago, and even when they were in college, the kids who smoked were definitely in the minority. Their dorms and the buildings where classes were held, did not allow smoking even back then. Smoking bans have been in effect here in Ontario for so many years that smokers here are pretty much pariahs. It isn’t allowed in any building or workplace, people are not allowed to smoke in their own cars if they have children with them, and there is a new by-law going into effect in January 2015 that prohibits smoking in public parks, sports fields and outdoor patios (restaurants and bars have been smoke-free for several years).</p>
<p>Even my 2 Ds who attended U.S. colleges had a similar experience to their sisters who attended in Canada. Smoking was just not that prevalent, and I can’t think of any of their close friends who smoked/smoke. </p>
<p>There were a ton of smokers at my undergrad, and it seemed like many of them picked it up in college. I have no idea why, especially because the NYC cigarette prices are crazy</p>
<p>S1 said the only people who smoked on his campus were international students. I detest when people smoke at the doorways. Our state (also where S1’s school is) now has mandatory 8’ away from doors. Hopefully we’re moving the right direction, although very slowly. We’re one of the top smoking states Wish they’d tax it much higher as that has definitely shown to reduce smoking rates.</p>
Wish they’d tax it much higher as that has definitely shown to reduce smoking rates.</p>