There is much focus on our campus on the problem of alcohol use and abuse. There is not nearly enough focus on a scourge that threatens the health and well-being of just as many students – cigarette smoking.
I have been amazed during my time at Georgetown by how many students smoke. Walking to work at 8:30 a.m. in the morning, I see students smoking on their way to class. Standing in line at Vital Vittles, I see students purchasing cigarettes stocked right behind the cashier. I see students flick their butts on the ground before entering classroom buildings.
Between classes, students make a bee-line for the outdoors – like workers in office buildings – to get in a smoke. Cigarette boxes bulge from the front pockets of students’ shirts. At lunchtime, some students get in a good smoke instead of nourishing themselves in the cafeterias.
Cigarette smoking is a problem on our campus. It is causing grave danger to the health of many of our students. It is a problem that needs to be addressed.
The question is how. American society has sought to remedy the problem by banning smoking in public places, curtailing demand by raising luxury taxes and prohibiting certain kinds of advertising. Policies require warning signs on cigarette packages and companies to educate about the general health risks of smoking. What our society has not done enough of – and what we need to do here at Georgetown – is to address some of the underlying reasons why people smoke. Perhaps by addressing these issues, we will create the circumstances under which our students will choose not to light up.
Why do Georgetown students smoke? Working professionally with students and being a recent student myself, I have my amateur guesses and suggested remedies.
No. 1 reason: to relieve anxiety and to bandage injured self-esteem. Georgetown students live in a pressure cooker – challenged academically, over-sensitized socially, living in an environment which reflects as much the inner-Beltway frenzy as a college campus, their private space invaded by wave after wave of fliers advertising virtually everything but “time to take care of my own internal business.” Some take their respite in alcohol, some in food, others by more innocuously chewing their nails, still others in countless damaging activities.
Not enough students take their respite in reflection, relaxation, therapy and supportive community structures. It is the job of faculty, staff and administration – everyone in the student service business – to help point students toward the resources where they can healthily relieve the anxiety of their day-to-day lives on campus and construct healthy self-esteem. These resources, religious life, counseling services, academic advising, ought not be there just for times of crisis but for the regular maintenance of healthy lives.
The No. 2 reason why Georgetown students smoke is to rebel against established conventions. College is both a time of conforming to societal norms, like training for a professional track, and a time of rebellion and recklessness. It is a time when, even if we don’t feel invincible, we believe we are supposed to feel invincible.
The dangers of smoking? “Well, I’m only 20 and those dangers are way down the road for me, if at all.”
The remedies for this cause of smoking may be more elusive. We must impress on students who smoke that the dangers aren’t so distant; life-long addiction can be the consequence of innocuous experimentation in college. And we must sensitively steer students toward other ways to express rebellion and non-conformity: artistic endeavors, involvement in political action and social justice, among others.
The No. 3 reason why students smoke is social pressure. Many people start smoking because their friends do or because “it’s the thing to do.” Only with the public advocacy of student organizations and the modeling of student leadership on campus will the message be conveyed that smoking is not cool.
There is certainly a much more exhaustive list of reasons why Georgetown students smoke. The key to remedying the problem of smoking lies not just in law and education but in using understanding and sensitivity to deal with the root causes of the problem – which are also root causes for other troubling phenomena of student life on campus.
My tradition, Jewish tradition, has not yet arrived at the point of legally prohibiting all smoking. Although the tradition prohibits activities that endanger one’s health, it has difficulty surmounting the societal reality that smoking is such an integral part of modern patterns of social behavior.
Smoking is also, unfortunately, an integral part of social behavior on Georgetown’s campus. It is incumbent upon all of us in our community to change this reality, from the ground up.
Rabbi Mark Robbins is the Jewish Chaplain at Georgetown University.
