<p>Ackpoor, I think you have a great head on your shoulders! You are very aware and open minded and made your point perfectly without making judgments on anyone. I commend you for being sooo aware at such a young age. It is a sign to me our world is moving in the right direction :)
signed, parent of Bardian</p>
<p>Just returned from a college trip with my son and immediately did a search on this topic. We visited a host of small Eastern LACs, many quite artsy, when the weather was super nice. I was stunned by the amount of cigarette smoking at Bard. It was noticeably different than the other campuses. A student was even smoking during an outdoor class on the lawn. I was a college student once, yes, and i know there will be smoking at all of these places, but it really seemed to be the dominant culture at Bard. I wonder if the administration is doing anything to discourage this or place boundaries around it. We LOVED everything else about Bard; absolutely wonderful classes, discussions, students, campus, unbelievable integration of science and art–a terrific place. But I wouldn’t want my son to feel alienated from activities because of this issue. We come from a family with a high incidence of smoking-related cancers, and I feel strongly that campuses should be tightly restricting this activity to protect the health of students and staff.</p>
<p>The large number of students my daughter observed smoking at Bard was a major turn-off to her.</p>
<p>Jeez, Proud Dad. You’re kind of a dick…</p>
<p>The poster you are commenting on submitted it two years ago, so I doubt he’ll notice your critique. In any case, he’s just worried about kids starting to smoke, regardless of how you feel about how he made his points. Calling people insulting names is unhelpful.</p>
<p>By the way, smoking causes premature wrinkling and skin aging!</p>
<p>many people smoke cigarettes at bard (a fact that’s definitely not hidden), but i don’t find it hard at all to be a non-smoker there. many of my friends are trying to quit or cut down a bit. yes, i feel as though i’m in the minority, but it’s not difficult to not do it in the slightest.</p>
<p>My daughters friend is a sophomore at Bard. She is not a cigarette smoker and has definitely noticed the amount of smoking on campus. </p>
<p>My daughter is a sophomore at another liberal arts college and she has visited Bard and has noticed how much more cigarette smoking there is at Bard than at her college. Its definitely the culture at Bard to cig smoke.</p>
<p>The smoking is just done outside, right? They don’t allow it in the buildings, do they??</p>
<p>Nope. Strictly an outside activity. There are also no “smoking” dorms or dorm rooms.</p>
<p>There’s no smoking permitted in *any building *in the State of New York. It is a New York State law, and all institutions, public or private, must comply.</p>
<p>^^ Maybe that’s why some visitors see more people walking around outside & smoking than on other campuses. ;)</p>
<p>My daughter and I toured Bard today, and based on this thread, I paid attention to the smoking. There was noticeably more of it than at other schools we’ve seen, but no means would I say 70% of the students were smoking. It was a somewhat rainy morning, and so not a lot were hanging around outside where they could smoke, but when the rain stopped we noticed a few passing-by kids smoking, and some outside buildings, but it did not look like a majority.</p>
<p>And it wasn’t enough to bother my strongly anti-smoking daughter. She adored Bard.</p>
<p>i love smoking</p>
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<p>I’m still here and, more to the point, my D is still at Bard. Third-year now and still not smokingand still not finding that the smoking of others limits her enthusiasm for Bard! ;)</p>