“Do it, because it’s cool.”
That’s what senior Luke Martin said about smoking. Martin, along with a group of nicotine addicts, can often be found outside the Grewcock Student Union smoking cigarettes. But they’re not the only students at Hillsdale who enjoy smoking. A brief tour of Hillsdale’s campus reveals students smoking outside the student union, the library, the Simpson and Galloway residences, and other hangouts.
The college does not explicitly condone smoking, but will not stop students from exercising their right to smoke. Because of fire safety regulations, students are not permitted to smoke inside, but anywhere outside on campus is fair game.
“The college is on private property, so the administration has every right to make a policy about smoking,” Chief Administrative Officer Rich Péwé said. “If a smoker wants to smoke outside, and they are not hurting anyone — just their own body — that is their choice.”
Other nearby schools such as Kalamazoo College, Michigan State University, and University of Michigan have adopted smoke-free policies within the past five years, but, according to Péwé, it is unlikely that Hillsdale will follow suit.
“Too many things are already over-regulated by the states or the federal government,” Péwé said. “Students need to rise to self-governance.”
Péwé said the college understands the negative health effects nicotine has on the body (nicotine addiction is the one of the leading causes of death annually in the United States) but believes students should be responsible for their own health when it comes to smoking.
“If students understand those implications and do make the choice to start, they should be allowed to smoke outside, as long as they are not harming the facilities, causing a mess, or putting others at risk,” Péwé said.
Neither the Ambler Health Center nor the financial office actually records how many students smoke, so it’s impossible to give an exact number of Hillsdale College smokers. But, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 16.8 percent of Americans are smokers. In addition, 16.7 percent of Americans ages 18-24 are smokers, the highest among any individual age group. If Hillsdale follows the national trend, there are about 240 student smokers on campus.
Students have conflicting opinions on smoking. Junior Dani Ruedisueli, for instance, said she enjoys smoking, but does not consider herself a smoker. She said she used to regard smoking as an evil until she noticed that some of her role models smoked.
“In my senior year of high school I lived with a mentor who was also a friend of mine. One day she told me she smoked, and I realized that I had a strange prejudice against smoking,” Ruedisueli said. “It took a long time for me to realize that smoking doesn’t make someone a bad person.”
Ruedisueli said she has since decided that a group a people smoking cigarettes together can create a positive atmosphere that outweighs the physical harm of smoking.
“Smoking really brings people together and puts you in situations where you are able to have conversations that you wouldn’t be able to have otherwise,” she said.
Ruedisueli said she realized smoking could be a positive force when in her freshman year, she discovered one of her best friends at Hillsdale smoked.
“I let her smoke my first cigarette with me and teach me how to do it,” she said. “We made it a real friend-bonding moment.”
Although she enjoys smoking occasionally, Ruedisueli said she will never become a smoker herself.
“My younger sister made me promise that I would never buy my own, and I have stuck to that,” she said.
Another smoker, senior David Johnson, said smoking is a necessary addiction for him. When he came to Hillsdale, Johnson was on the track team. After a rough first semester, he picked up smoking to cope with stress.
“I would sneak outside of my dorm at night and just smoke a cigarette,” he said. “It became a habit — when I got stressed out, I would smoke.”
Johnson said he eventually quit the track team, which gave him the time to hang out with a group of people who smoked all the time.
“I realized that it really was a way to bond with people,” he said. “You’re standing outside for like seven minutes — not really doing anything — so you just talk. You really grow closer to people that way.”
Johnson said he knows some people think smoke smells disgusting, but he did not notice it until he tried to quit two weeks ago.
“I started to get my sense of smell back,” he said. “I didn’t know I smelled like a cigarette all the time. Some people may find that gross, but when you’re a smoker, you don’t really notice.”
Some students aren’t convinced that smoking can do anyone any good. Sophomore Mark Compton said it baffles him how people willfully destroy their bodies with cigarettes.
“We’re at a place where everyone is incredibly intelligent. And then we have this activity that has been proven time and time again to be detrimental to your health in a multitude of ways. And yet we have a lot of people who do it anyways. When I first came here, it really surprised me,” he said.
Other students, however, do not regard their smoking habit as an addiction at all. Junior Samuel Potter said he smokes for the aesthetic benefits the experience brings.
“I don’t really smoke for the nicotine buzz,” he said. “All my role models — Tom Waits, Hayao Miyazaki — they smoke like crazy. So I should too.”