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Show No Smoking Aggies Insenced An editorial in "Student Life," the student newspaper news-paper at Utah State University, last Friday condemned students who had broken regulations by smoking in the Student Union. This is their business. And perhaps it is not the responsibility of an outside newspaper to criticize this stand or to take a stand of its own on the matter, but it seems to tis that some of the arguments advanced to support a stand as crucial as this one are specious and inaccurate. It is asserted in the editorial, for example, that "One important function of education is to teach good citizenship . . . violating regulations is not the way to gain liberties." Has the writer ever heard of the Boston Tea Party, of Ghandi, or of civil rights sit-ins? Without these and countless other acts of civil disobefr ience, America and India would still be British colonies and Jim Crow laws would still be the law of the land. Revolutions of any kind are almost by definition "violations" of existing statutes, since nearly any reg-eme reg-eme or administration has laws to protect itself from violent change or upheaval. Students who "smoke in" at Utah State last week state that their requests for reconsideration of the smoking ban have been consistently rejected with the explanation, "You knew about the rules when you came to this school." Perhaps civil disobedience is the best alternative to an administrative position this intransigent and flexible. flex-ible. Six hundred Utah State students thought so last week. "Student Life" called for "punitive consequences" consequenc-es" (in plain English, disciplinary action) against the smokers-in. It then declared magnanimously that it would "not object" to the creation of smoking smok-ing facilities "if the Board of Trustees approved." We have nothing fundamentally against a student newspaper siding with the administration and Board of Trustees while censuring a sizeable minority of protesting students. We only hope that next time it comes up with better reasons for doing so. |