Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

I've been a faculty member at the University of Texas at Arlington for 20 years. When I arrived, in August 1989, smoking was allowed in buildings. Two years later, smoking was banned inside buildings and within 50 feet of entrances. This is where things stand. Recently, the university's president announced that the university will ban all tobacco products from campus in 2011. What do you think of such a rule? It will certainly inconvenience a great many people, including longtime professors; but it will also make a lot of people (such as me) happy. I have always hated walking through smoke as I approach my building via the second-floor walkway. I can detect smoke from 20 feet away. The irony of this new policy is that it will drive people (mainly students) off campus. For years, the administration has tried to change UTA from a commuter school to a more traditional campus.