Earlier this month, 14 state schools in Pennsylvania banned smoking entirely from their campuses. Yes, even outdoors. Now, we agree that there’s nothing healthy or attractive about smoking cigarettes, but a campus-wide ban is utterly ridiculous.

First of all, banning something that’s otherwise completely legal everywhere else is definitely an infraction of personal freedom. Smokers make the choice to harm their own lungs and shorten their own lives. Whether a university’s prerogatives are of protecting the general welfare of its students or not, it still comes down to the smoker’s decision – not the school’s.

To be honest, a campus-wide smoking ban would be more harmful than helpful. What happens after a student comes back from a bar late at night and really wants a cigarette? He or she would have to walk off campus to have a smoke. It doesn’t matter whether it’s across Hillcrest, or somewhere close to North Central Expressway, it’s still dangerous.

There are definitely other ways to clean up a smoker-filled college campus. One way would be to have certain areas designated for smoking. Ban smoking in all other areas of the campus. If it works at an airport, it can work for a university.

Besides, think how pretty our campus would be without the yellow array of cigarette butts littering the boulevard. Maybe our school could even do without the hundreds of ashtrays around campus and replace them with trashcans students actually need.

Now, we’re not saying that our own campus is considering implementing such a ban. There aren’t even that many smokers on the Hilltop. But in actuality, Pennsylvania isn’t the only state with smoke-free schools. According to the American Lung Association, there are over 130 universities across the country with such policies.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re in favor of all buildings being smoke free. Can you imagine all that second-hand smoke? Gross. The problem is strictly with banning smoking outside. It’s like the modern-day Prohibition.

Another problem with the campus-wide smoking bans in Pennsylvania is that it happened overnight. Apparently, students received e-mails detailing the new rule the day before the ban went into effect. Seriously, there should have been an open forum, discussion or at least fair warning. Now, over 110,000 students in the state are leading protests over the ban. Is it really worth it, people?

Yes, smoking is harmful. It turns teeth yellow and lungs black and is just disgusting in general. However, things can be done to get the message across besides making people (rightfully) angry by saying “you just can’t do it anymore, sorry.” It’s just not fair.