Speak Out: College Smoking Bans Spark Debate

Add George Washington University to the list of metro-area campuses--including Montgomery College and the University of Maryland--to snuff out smoking on campus as part of a nationwide movement, despite an outcry by some students.

The GW campus was the scene of a smoke-in protest earlier this month after school officials decided to bar smoking from the DC campus, The Washington Post reported. Some GW students and faculty are blasting the decision, but school officials are unfazed.

"No matter how much science we have to back up what we're saying, there will always be individuals who see this as a restriction on their freedom," GW anti-smoking advocate Julien Guttman told The Post.

The school's efforts are the latest in a growing national movement that has drawn support from the White House, reported WJLA.

More than 800 campuses are smoke-free, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. Meanwhile, three states—Arkansas, Iowa and Oklahoma—require all their college and university campuses to be smoke-free, according to ANRF.

All institutions in the University of California system will ban use or sale of cigarettes and chewing tobacco by 2014, reported USA Today. 

Closer to home, Montgomery College’s three campuses—Rockville, Germantown, Silver Spring/Takoma Park—banned smoking in 2008. Towson University followed suit in 2009.

The University of Maryland approved a ban this summer that would take effect on all 12 of its campuses before the Fall 2013 semester, sparking protest from students and raising questions of how to enforce it, The Gazette reported.

Nine of Maryland's other higher-learning institutions bar smoking, according to ANRF:

• Carroll Community College
• Chesapeake College
• Frostburg State University
• Garrett College
• Harford Community College
• Howard Community College
• Maryland Bible College and Seminary
• Salisbury University
• Washington Adventist University