It began with a student survey, then translated into an Undergraduate Assembly proposal.
Now, after much consideration by both the UA and the University Council, a new smoking policy has become a reality for the Penn community.
"This wasn't just the inclinations of 33 UA members," UA chairman and College senior Jason Levy, referring to the no-smoking policy that will be instituted in all college houses beginning next September.
Currently, residents are allowed to smoke in all dormitories if their roommates consent to it.
The initiative was based on the results of a survey sent to students last semester.
"Students were overwhelmingly for it," he said.
Across college campuses nationwide, students and administrations seem to support smoke-free dormitory legislation.
"Many of [the] Ivy League schools are smoke-free and the ones that aren't are moving toward it," Levy said.
However, some students are not in support of this trend.
Resident advisers "are not necessarily going to be happy about having to add this to our responsibilities," said College senior Ariel Ben-Amos, an RA in Ware College House.
Under the new initiative, RAs will be responsible for enforcing the policy.
"I think it's a waste of our time," Ben-Amos said.
He also said he thought it was just "an extension of the University's policy of having to be everyone's parent."
Ben-Amos is already anticipating problems.
"There are going to be a lot of kids bitching and moaning about" the new policy, he said.
Levy said he does expect that "a small vocal minority ... may be frustrated by this policy," but he emphasized that this was a proposal that came directly from student opinion.
According to Michael Patterson, president of the Penn chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the University is within its rights.
"I can absolutely see that the University has a stake in making sure people aren't exposed to something that has been proven dangerous," the College junior said.
Although Patterson said that "the National ACLU supports the right of people to smoke."
He then added that the organization "supports the right of people to not be exposed to secondhand smoke."
If because of the ventilation systems, "the infrastructure isn't capable of being outfitted" to protect its residents from secondhand smoke, then Patterson sees the new policy as fair.
"I don't think this should be seen as an ostracization of people who smoke," he said.
But some smokers interpret it this way.
"Students who smoke pay just as much money to live in the dormitories as students who don't smoke," College sophomore and smoker Liz Kubiak said, criticizing the new smoking ban.
She suggested creating a separate dormitory where smoking would be allowed, or just designating certain specific sections of dormitories as smoker-friendly.
"I feel that smoking responsibly in the dormitories is not a problem," Kubiak said.
She also said she thought that settling the controversial issue "within the hierarchy of the [individual] dormitories" was more democratic than simply "banning it entirely across the University."
