Even to the sporadic library trekker, the scene in front of Alderman at dusk is a familiar one. The sandy wooden benches and marble steps are populated with mentally-exhausted students on a break.Often, they are chatting in various languages, accompanied by a cup of coffee, or, more often, -- a cigarette.
It is the most infamous smokers' niche on Grounds. Students who smoke seem to withdraw to these well-known spots. Spots like the small sunken recess outside the west exit to Newcomb Hall or the steps leading down to the Amphitheater. So it becomes a rare incident to see someone smoking along the main walkways on Grounds.
It is still before noon on an indolent Monday, and fourth-year College student Katie Ketchum is sitting alone, legs extended, on the steps of Old Cabell and smoking a cigarette in the few minutes before her next class starts. The steps are a common place to find smokers, especially during mid-afternoon and in those fleeting minutes between classes.
Ketchum readily admits to being labeled a smoker and says she started when she was 16 years old.
"It was my lame attempt to rebel against parents," Ketchum said.
Few students smoke on Grounds, she said, and there are definitely certain smoking alcoves to retreat to in times of need.
"A lot of people smoke outside of buildings," she said. "It helps you stay awake."
But Ketchum was quick to talk about the diurnal change when night descends on the University.
"People look down on you when you smoke around Grounds, but then you go out on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday night and 75 percent of the population is smoking and people are bumming cigarettes off you," she said.
Take a simple visual survey of a frat party or a bar and it is blaringly obvious that many people are smoking, and the only comments toward the smokers are obsequious attempts to bum a cigarette.
But during the day, and on Grounds, Ketchum definitely has noticed the antagonism toward smokers.
"People definitely give you looks and make comments," she said emphatically. "But I never try to smoke around a lot of people. If you don't like it walk away. I'm fully aware of how it could harm my health and I will quit at some point, but you know, it is my decision. It's my choice. I don't tell people not to do things I don't like."
Just after lunchtime, fourth-year Graduate student Andres Montano walks down the temporary metal walkway toward Clemons library. Taking a seat on the rain-beaten benches outside the main doors, he finishes his cigarette before entering the building. Montano has a tumultuous smoking history, full of starting, determined quitting and relapsing. After having successfully quit for four years, he started again two years ago, "because of graduate school," he said with a self-aware chuckle.
"Well, smoking is a nice break," Montano finally said, after humorously struggling to find the right words to explain why he finds the habit comforting.
Montano, now in religious studies, attended school in Guatemala for his undergraduate career, and said he found smoking much more wide-spread and accepted on that campus than at the University.
At the University, "there is a lot of publicity for not smoking. People do have this stereotype of viewing smokers as if they were dirty," Montano said. "It's hard to smoke at the University."
Ketchum said she believes the social aspect of smoking is due to the common ground it provides.
"It's a really easy excuse to start up a conversation," she said. "I've met so many people smoking and bumming cigarettes and lighters."
Giving a smile and discreet motion to himself,Montano said, "much, much, much fewer people just smoke enjoying their cigarette by themselves."
To more clearly illustrate the resentment that he feels from others as a smoker, Montano offered a little vignette.
"I was just walking three days ago and this totally random guy came up to me and said something like 'smoking kills you!' Something very aggressive," he said, gesturing forward with his hands. Montano said he feels the hostility toward smokers is ironic.
"It should be part of freedom for people to engage as they wish. That specific event has been bothering me for a few days," he added.
"I don't tell you what you should do in you life," said Ketchum of the people who would go up to her and reproach her for smoking.
It's late afternoon now, cloudy and quiet. Third-year College student Christina Manriquez, in a blue Virginia logo t-shirt, walks under the Bryan Hall walkway and halts a few feet away from Cabell Hall's white doors. Standing in a brick corner, there is a hint of ennui in her gaze as she finishes smoking her cigarette. Manriquez said she's been smoking for two years and consumes nearly half a pack a day.
"It's a way to relax and it gives you a buzz, it's just something to do," Manriquez said. "And it's pleasurable."
Manriquez agreed with Ketchum and Montano about the attitude towards on-Grounds smokers.
"People are unfriendly towards smokers; we feel ostracized," she said. "People give you dirty looks and they think that you are trying to kill them by standing outside and smoking. I think it can be ridiculous."
As a friend comes up and waits for Manriquez so they won't be late for their next class, she talks confidently about her views.
"I can do whatever I want. We're outside. So get over it," she said.
But in general, in spite of the large stampedes of students that come pummeling along main sidewalks during the day, surprisingly few are carrying a thin cigarette between their fingers. Instead, there are always a few students, standing to the side, taking a quick break -- and a quick smoke -- before heading back to the books. They do seem relaxed.
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