Stop smoking in the dorm!

The BBQ Pit
1

You are not allowed to smoke in the dorm. You know this because you are not allowed to smoke inside any building on campus, nor any public building within the fucking state. It is explicitly stated in the housing contract that you will not smoke in the dorm. Yet you continue to smoke in the fucking dorm!

I have politely asked you to stop on several occasions and I have explained that the smell wafts through the entire first floor of our small building, and that it is somewhat irritating to me because I have shitty allergies. You apologized and continued, on a regular basis, to smoke your fucking cigarettes in the dorm.

I spoke to our RA, who then spoke to you, and that got the same fucking response.

I spoke to the housing director, who did fucking nothing, because he is a useless sack of flesh who should be chopped up and fed to students in the cafeteria, because maybe that would help bring the retarded cost of room and board down.

You are an annoying, bratty whore who needs to get lung cancer and die, now. It is six seconds from your room to outside the building, where you can smoke seven hundred cigarettes in a row and I will not give a fuck as long as you are not doing it in a place where I sleep and study any more. In the case of precipitation - which, might I remind you, is fucking rare as we are in the goddamn desert - there is a convenient balcony immediately above the door, which spans the entire length of the building and extends out for several feet. If it is cold, then I don’t give a fuck; if you don’t want to stand out in the cold don’t fucking smoke, bitch.

I have not yet caught you in the act but if I do, I will knock you over very hard, and then I will kneel on your chest until you cannot breathe, and punch you in the face many many times, until my knuckles break and I cannot physically punch you any more, and then I will kick you over and over and over in the stomach until you are dead, and then I will sue your parents for the cost of the extra allergy pills I have had to buy, and then I’ll mail them an ashtray full of soot and butts to congratulate them on their daughter’s worthless, selfish, miserable life. Bitch.

2

As an RA who was in a position to bust and harass dumbasses for smoking in the dorm (tobacco and marijuana) just a short while ago, well put.

Do people presume that if they flick their lighters quietly it won’t be detectable or obnoxious to other people in the dorm?

3

The problem is, smokers seem not to have any clue that people can smell their smoke in other locations… they think that because their door is closed, it shouldn’t bother anyone, right? They have lost so much of their sense of smell that they are totally oblivious. That, or they are in complete nicotine-fueled denial…

For example, I’ve been staying at my parents’ house recently (due to a job loss) and my mom smokes, and the house smells disgusting most of the time. Well, I spend most of my time in the finished basement (where my bedroom is) which has much better air quality, but still, every morning, my mom wakes up, and sits at the kitchen table one floor up, next to the air intake vent, and chain smokes. At this moment, I am awoken from my deep sleep by the putrid toxic air blowing from the vent. This is despite the expensive air cleaning system my dad had installed which is supposed to have an ultra HEPA filter cleaning all air that is circulated. Despite this, I am awoken by the stench every morning like clockwork.

I have told her about this, and it’s like she doesn’t believe me… how could the smoke possibly transverse through the vent into the basement?! I must just be making it all up. Oh yeah, and if I accidentally leave the basement door open, the smoke creeps downstairs like a thick foul fog of vileness.

Of course, I really can’t complain, because I’m unemployed and broke and living here rent-free, so I guess this is the price I pay… :rolleyes:

4

One last rant… this is similar to how smokers (i.e. my mother) will light up a cigarette in the car when I’m with her, and she can’t understand why it bothers me, because after all, her window is open (yeah, cracked like 1 inch - that really helps!!) She just doesn’t understand how I could be bothered by the smoke when every last molecule of it is obviously escaping out the 1-inch open window. How could I possibly smell it if the window is open??! It’s like she truly does not get it. It is foul vileness, and it’s a good thing my mother is a wonderful woman in all other aspects because otherwise I would never be able to stand it.

5

They banned smoking in the dorms?! How do the stoners cope with that? Don’t tell me…

6

I think I got lucky in this regard. The one (two, but one quit) smoker in my uni flat pretty much always was willing to smoke out the window. I never once came back to smell the unpleasant stink that suggested they only were careful when others were there, and more impressive since to get outside would mean taking the lift or five flights of stairs every time.

Alternate smokeables, on the other hand, left quite a trail. But that was to general acceptance anyway, and luckily I got rare partakers rather than complete stoners.

7

Hell hath no fury like a nonsmoker scorned?

(I quit 2 months ago and liked your OP. Don’t hurt me!)

8

When I was a freshman in college, my RA came up to me one time and said, “Look, I know you smoke pot, and I do, too. But, when you go outside to smoke it, please walk a little farther than right under my window. It makes me look bad when you do that.”

9

I lived with several smokers in various dorms during college, and they were all pretty considerate. Always walking outside to smoke and making sure no one nearby minded when they lit up.

Not that that helps the OP at all, just thought I’d throw in that there’s a decent number of smokers go out of there way to make sure they’re not pissing anyone off (other then their medical insurers) with their habit.

10

There is no smoking anywhere on my campus, except if you are in your own car (seriously, that is stated in the rules- it might even mention having the windows up- I haven’t read them in a while). Now, I know that sucks. I don’t really agree with it, but that was what was decided.

I also don’t care when you sneak up to the roof terrace and light up. It is night up there and there is always a breeze.
But, do you need to stand upwind of me? I am sitting in the middle of it, so you could go on either side of me. Must you pick the one that will leave me smelling like I smoked myself? I’m just trying to eat lunch in the sun, not cough up a lung. Judging wind direction is not hard- anyone with a thumb or face can do it.
The car rule is looking better each time you do this.

11

Why don’t you just talk to the person who’s doing this? I’m sure he’s thinking that he’s outside and that’s all there is to it. I know I’d be thinking that. Or I guess I should be considerate enough to bring an anemometer along whenever I go outside to smoke. :rolleyes:

12

As a heavy smoker who’s turning into a light smoker who’s soon to be a non-smoker, I agree with the OP. But I’m not sure I agree with the quoted bit.

As a lifelong smoker I still retain an excellent sense of smell. When I go without for several hours (and am in a smoke-free environment and am wearing freshly washed clothes), I can detect smoke and smokers pretty easily. It’s not a matter of smokers destroying their smelling, it’s a matter of olfactory fatigue. When you’re around any particular smell long enough, you cease to smell it. It’s the same with working on a farm or in a pizzeria.

Not that that detracts from the OP, of course, but I thought I’d add a data point.

13

Well gosh, if smoking isn’t allowed in the building, and smoke is emanating from her, she must be on fire. The only kind thing is to get a bucket of water . . .

14

I guess I’m an old man. You can’t smoke in a dorm room? That is a person’s home. So, two smokers could share a dorm room, but still have to step outside to smoke?

15

Yes, because A) it’s not someone’s home, it’s a rented room in a shared building, and B) smoke is not easily contained by doors, especially in buildings with crappy heating systems that spread air from one room to the next, and C) in our state smoking is not allowed in any public buildings, which a dorm (arguably) falls under.

16

Easy with that one. IANAL (yet) and I’m unfamiliar with exactly how your state sets landlord and tenant law, but any rented residential premises generally are not public. No matter what building they happen to be in. Now, if the lease (regardless of what you may call it at your school, a contract for the use of premises for a set period of time, including residential premises such as are found on university campuses, is going to be seen legally as a lease) states that smoking is not allowed, then it is a condition of the lease that smoking is not allowed. A public building and laws regarding public buildings have nothing to do with it; behaviour in residential premises is governed by a lease. It can be a law or even a rule of the building that common areas (lobbies, stairwells, etc.) are smoke-free, but you run into problems when you try to legislate behaviour in privately-rented residential premises. So legislators don’t even try. You need to look to your lease, not the law.

I have to agree with tdn. I smoke cigars and pipes now, cigarettes previously, and have smoked for at least thirty years; and my sense of smell is far from ruined. The idea that smoking kills your sense of smell is, IME, made much more out of than it deserves. Maybe after sixty or seventy years of heavy pack-a-day-plus smoking, your sense of smell would suffer, but I’d guess that college-age students in their 20s would still have a sense of smell much like yours. Tdn is right; it is a matter of olfactory fatigue. You simply get used to it.

Lastly, so you don’t think I’m disagreeing with you totally, I also spent time in a university residence. Per the lease, smoking in the rooms was not allowed. So, when I felt like a smoke, I had no problem going outside. It was a term of the lease, after all. And I could sure smell it when someone decided to have a cigarette inside.

17

As a smoker… who the hell smokes indoors these days?

18

I’ll smoke my pipe or a cigar in my own house occasionally. Not often, but an evening with a glass of whisky, a good book or movie or game, and the fire, just seem to demand a nice smoke. Since I only smoke the best of both (i.e., the very expensive cigars and pipe blends that you think twice about lighting up due to cost), even my non-smoking wife, who enjoys the aroma of these fine cured-and-aged tobaccos, will sometimes suggest I have a pipe or cigar at these times. I’m happy to comply.

Still, I think she’d say something non-complementary if I was to fill my pipe with cheap-n-crappy drugstore tobacco at the breakfast table. :slight_smile:

19

You actually expect people in a dorm to follow dorm rules? Where do you go to college, Pollyanna U?

My suggestion: get used to it. People haven’t followed dorm rules for like 400 years. Why would they start now? If cigarette smoking is the worst that goes on, consider yourself lucky.

Are you one of those people who, like, goes running to an RA if you see somebody bringing a case of beer into the dorm or calls the cops if you see somebody smoking pot? You must be fun.

20

Former RA - hall director - big honcho over dorm life here. I’m usually understanding of the most commonly broken rules (having gfs/bfs over a few days if it’s cool with the roommate, drinking in your room as long as you’re mellow, etc.) but this annoys me because as the OP states, people way out of your way are often affected by it. For many, cigarette smoke is as objectionable as an open sewer - who the hell wants to smell that? And smoke, for all the clueless smokers of all stripes out there, is not easily contained. That’s why we were always able to bust the potheads, despite the wet towel under the door.

I’ve known many smokers and for the most part they are respectful of the fact that people are bothered by smoke and won’t do it in public places. And I won’t come to your house and tell you to stop smoking. But anyone over the age of 16 should know that smoking in an environment with poor ventilation (like a dorm) is assholish behavior because it can’t be contained.

To the OP - I would contact the hall director’s boss or the dean of students. I know not everybody wants to do the job, but if you choose to do it and can’t follow through with your responsibilities, you deserve to be embarrassed by having your boss know that you’ve been completely ineffective in your job.

Incidentally, I don’t mind pipe smoke at all…