Students at Mizzou Quads scolded for smoking

Residence Life officials said the smoking rule is unclear.

By Krissy Tripp

Published Oct. 17, 2008

Students at the Mizzou Quads had their student IDs taken with threats of discipline referrals while breaking a rule no one claimed to make.

A community adviser warned students, including Chris Borgerding, Miles Smith and Brian Muench, that smoking on the balconies is prohibited at Mizzou Quads, the students said. Smith and Muench were caught smoking cigarettes on the balcony, so the CA took their student IDs and gave them to Hall Coordinator Josh Johnson in order to properly discipline them.

Mizzou Quads resident Jon Cleair found the rule odd because on-campus students may smoke on their balconies.

"To me, it makes more of a [fire] hazard because if you take away peoples' right to smoke on balconies because it drives them to smoke inside," he said.

After investigating both MU and Campus Lodge guidelines, he found neither prohibited smoking on balconies.

Department of Residential Life policy states smoking is permitted on open-air balconies unless the residents on that floor or in that hall choose to restrict it through community standards discussion. Benches and ash urns are provided outside the halls where feasible so people can smoke away from the exteriors of the hall.

Cleair contacted Blake Lawrence, Residence Halls Association Speaker of Congress, and the two co-authored a resolution titled Assertion of Residents Rights to use Tobacco Products. The bill requested the Residential Life staff stop misinterpreting the policy and accommodate students with benches and ash urns if the no smoking rule is enforced. The bill passed unanimously during the RHA internal meeting.

Cleair also contacted Johnson about changing the rule through a series of e-mails.

After the resolution passed in RHA internal committee, students thought the rule had changed, but it hadn't yet.

"As far as smoking on balconies is concerned, there hasn't been anything passed that says residents can smoke on balconies" Johnson said in an e-mail.

Johnson also sent a friendly reminder of a couple Mizzou Quads balcony policies to all residents. He took a closer look at Campus Lodge policies and kept Cleair updated by e-mail.

Johnson wrote to Cleair that at the beginning of the year Mizzou Quads and Campus Lodge discussed the smoking policy and it was his understanding that Campus Lodge didn't allow smoking anywhere in the building, including the balcony.

After the miscommunication was discovered, the policy was modified to allow smoking only on the balcony and only if all residents in the apartment agree to it. Also, cigarettes must be disposed of properly.

Residential Life area coordinator Beth Lauchstaedt e-mailed the residents to update them on the decision.

Discipline referrals for the students who had their IDs taken are not on record.