The months leading up to the start of a new school year bring fierce competition for a spot in residential housing on campus. Incoming freshmen and transfer students are told to apply early to secure a place in one of the dorms or apartments at SF State. If chosen, a deposit is made, the first month’s rent is paid, a contract is signed and the deal is done.

What students don’t know is that they are agreeing to follow a set of rules, regulations and punishments set up by their new “landlords” that other SF State students, who do not live on campus, are not held to.

Lemery Reyes article, “Tower Smokers Feeling the Heat,” reports “students who reside on campus and violate the no smoking mandate are the only group on campus subjected to penalties.”

Penalizing smokers for violating a university mandate is one thing, but subjecting students to different standards because they live on campus is unfair. Most likely, smokers who decide to live in residential housing at SF State don’t know they can be written up like a high school student for something the university doesn’t enforce. They also probably aren’t aware they could be subjected to picking up cigarette butts or filling out an online educational test on smoking, as one resident said.

All SF State students should be treated equally. We are all adults and although we may not all agree on the choice to smoke – that is a separate debate – we should all be held to the same standards. Until the university changes the smoking ban from a mandate to a punishable law, a student should not have to face consequences based solely on where they choose to live.

A resident advisor even said that advisors who hand out these citations to student residents who smoke on campus are on power trips and acting as the Gestapo. If the university wants to hold individuals accountable for their actions, then maybe all the facilities should get on the same page and figure out just what is legal and what is not. While smoking might carry a surgeon generals warning and be proven to cause damage, every person has the right to treat their body with the respect they see fit.

While it is one thing to regulate smoking in buildings, it is another to punish students for living their lives. No resident advisor nor building manager should be allowed to punish a student who lives in Mary Park Hall but is smoking outside the J. Paul Leonard library.

Students should be aware of exactly what they are getting into when they make the choice to live on campus because once the contract is signed, there’s no turning back. Granted, many freshmen don’t get to make that choice… their parents do. But once someone turns 18, they are able and expected to start making their own decisions.

To all those who can’t find a place to live around San Francisco, do your homework. Don’t just settle with on-campus housing when rents are cheaper in the rest of the city than they have been in years. Not only will living somewhere else save you money, but you will be allowed to smoke wherever you choose.