Can AUBG Become a Smoke-Free University?

It is not a secret that a lot of people on the AUBG campus are smokers. So when the conversations about the potential restrictions on smoking started to escalate, clashing opinions became prevalent.  

“I don’t smoke. But I'm a smoker. I’m a passive smoker. And that is the problem,” said Sabina Wien, the Dean of Students. 

Dean Wien stated that decisions such as restricting or banning smoking don’t just happen overnight. “I hope that students are aware that whenever the university has the intention to do something, we inform the students, not only inform them, we also consult with the students,” she said.

Dean Wien pointed out that a lot of new people have joined AUBG, including the new president, who noticed that the signs about not smoking in certain areas were not really working. “It is a natural life of signs. At a certain point, people stop noticing,” she said. 

Conversations around smoking started with the intention of supporting the rights of people who prefer not to smoke. “When you enter the buildings, you have to walk through a cloud of smoke,” Dean Wien noted.

She also said: “Limiting somebody’s freedom is wrong and smokers may not always be aware of non-smokers around them.”

Yet, nothing has been decided. “We don’t want to harm people who are smokers,” Dean Wien said, “We want to educate people.”

The conversations involved resident assistants, who are aware of the habits of students. “We discussed how we can accommodate people. We even discussed if we could have smoking and non-smoking balconies,” she shared.

“It is not about banning smoking, it is about banning the possibility of smokers harming the non-smokers,” Dean Wien added. 

Rati Sirabidze, a junior from Georgia, does not perceive smoking on campus as a problem. He currently lives off-campus, but still thinks that potential restrictions on smoking will affect him in some ways.  

“I don’t think that people are considering the deep-rooted cultural context and the meaning of smoking in the Balkans, especially in Bulgaria,” he said.

Rati said that smoking is a personal choice and this personal choice should not be restricted. “Every addiction is harmful. They might as well ban drinking on campus,” he said. 

He also raised the issue of the financial implications of the possible restriction or banning of smoking. “Does AUBG have money for such spending, considering that campus with about 1000 students has only one counselor?” he asked.

Rati said that topics tend to come and go. “It almost feels like they are trying to shift the focus from very problematic topics to something which people don’t really care about,” he added.

Rati thinks that nobody would go out of their way to smoke on a different balcony, or go off campus. He also raised the issue of how it could be monitored: “I don't think resident assistants would be willing to do that job on top of everything they are doing already.”

Ethan Perelstein, a senior from the U.S., had a contrasting opinion. “Smokers can just walk down to the river,” he said, “The rest of the country is designed for smokers, let’s make sure that at least our campus is safe for everyone.”

Considering that AUBG has a new president and the university has started the planned expansion, Ethan is not surprised that this conversation is coming up now. “It is a good opportunity for cultural change,” he said.

Ethan has written an article on smoking in AUBG. In his article, he discussed the notion of “individual freedom”. “Smokers who know better all over the world cite that it’s a ‘personal choice’ to subject themselves to cigarettes. To them it’s about individual freedoms. But for me, it is not a choice,” he wrote. 

He also raised a point about how smoking affects non-smokers. “I have become what the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) calls a passive smoker,” he said. Ethan emphasized in his article how passive smokers are also predisposed to lethal diseases due to the secondhand smoke left in the air. 

Ethan also highlighted that, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDS), “there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke; even brief exposure can cause serious health problems.”

Finally, Ethan raised the question: “Where are my individual rights?” 

Gage Miller is an exchange student from Louisiana, the U.S. He compared AUBG to his home university and said that students are not allowed to smoke cigarettes on campus.

 “You have to go off-campus, but you just have to go a foot off campus and you’ll be fine,” he said. 

He said that smoking on the AUBG campus is definitely much easier: “I definitely smoke a lot more here than I did in the U.S.”

Dimitar Vitliyanov, a sophomore from Bulgaria, shared that he had informal conversations with the administration about smoking on campus. “I feel like banning smoking would be impossible. The administration is just thinking of the options of how to restrict smoking on campus,” he said. 

Dimitar pointed out that such a policy will be difficult to attain because Bulgarians smoke a lot, and there is no structural support. “By that, I mean the state having specific programs and an interest to discourage smoking in general,” he said.

Just like Rati, Dimitar is concerned about the financial implications of the potential policies. “The administration will have to think about such things as ventilation if there are designated smoking areas,” he said. Such equipment costs a lot of money.

Dimitar considers smoking a systemic issue. “Some people don’t understand how difficult it is to not smoke once you are addicted,” he said.

Yet, Dimitar said that he understands why the conversations around smoking are taking place. “This is a change that is normal for Western universities, and being a model for a Western university in Bulgaria, it is only logical to pursue such policies,” he said.

Another student, who decided to stay anonymous, shared that he noticed how trash cans were moved away from the ABF and BAC entrances last semester. But, back then, he did not really think much of it.

At the beginning of this semester, he was smoking outside the ABF building with his friends. He said that they were standing two-to-three meters away from the entrance when suddenly a loud alarm went off. “I was terrified,” he said.

“I feel like the new president is trying to ban smoking as much as she can. She is trying to Americanize AUBG,” he said. “I don’t think she realizes where she is and how things work here,” he said, “People smoke so much here that it is a wonder how smoking is banned inside.”

Can AUBG actually become a smoke-free university? Out of 50 randomly chosen respondents, 78% think that it simply cannot happen. 

Nothing is decided though. There is still no set plan for AUBG’s transition to a smoke-free campus. 

Editors: Vasil Paskov and Niya Manditsch