Cubing Questions

Describe it: Well, this feels silly, but it looks like people smoking on campuses. I guess I envision grey clouds around people’s heads as they puff on their cancer sticks. I can’t think of any special features that it has.

Compare it: I guess banning smoking on campus is similar to banning alcohol or other drugs on campus. Our campus is not residential, so it should be easier to keep off the grounds than it may be at a residential university campus. As I write this, I realize that no college has been completely successful at keeping drugs and alcohol off of their campus, so I imagine that keeping cigarettes off of our campus will be no different. But the point is that there won’t be designated areas for people to pollute themselves or the people around them.

Associate it: Like I said, it reminds me of similar efforts to ban drugs and alcohol. I’ll also admit that smoking has negative associations for me because my grandfather died of emphysema. I will have to work hard to keep my tone from becoming too negative or bitter in my paper. Perhaps the use of the words “cancer sticks” isn’t the most appropriate. I also associate it with efforts to ban junk food on public school campuses by doing away with vending and pop machines and so forth. Hmmm, I wonder if I can dig up some research about that?

Analyze it: Well, the parts are the smokers, the campus, and the areas where they are currently allowed to smoke. Other parts include innocent bystanders who may have to breathe in the smoke. Another part is the regulation that allows them to smoke, which I want to change. And still another part is the cost that is associated with smoking on campus, which comes in the form of higher health insurance premiums for the college, which are ultimately passed onto us students in the form of tuition.

Argue it. Okay, this is the easy part. Smoking has already been banned in most public places in Ohio. The voting public has already accepted the general idea. It harms smokers and anyone who is forced to be around their smoking. It pollutes the air and the environment with cigarette butts. Like I said, it costs us money, and could be a fire safety risk to the campus. Arguments against it? Well, I guess people could say it infringes on their rights to treat their body however they please, in the same way that we don’t (yet) prevent people from eating Big Macs in public places. They could also argue that they will be forced to go to their cars or even drive off campus to smoke. Nicotine withdrawal could result in some very irritable people on campus, and could potentially prevent some students from getting an education in the first place.

Apply it. The application here is obvious: ban smoking on campus. The implications are that it will get people to realize that our health and safety should be a priority, especially at an educational institution.

So that’s what I came up with in response to the cubing questions. The “describe it” wasn’t very helpful for my topic, but I did get some good ideas out of the compare it, associate it, and argue it questions. I definitely have a lot to work with here.