The DNJ reports:

MTSU is joining other institutions across the state and nation in establishing a tobacco-free policy that will restrict the use of all forms of tobacco on its property.

It’s a mandate not everyone is happy about.

Megan Richter, an MTSU junior from Fayetteville who minors in art, said the change will be “hard on art students,” in particular.

“They put in long hours. They are up so long (because) they have to wait on things to dry,” she said. “They’ve got three-hour studios. People smoke.”

Richter has been smoking since high school.

“I enjoy the act of smoking; holding a cigarette,” she said.

Instead of more tobacco campus restrictions, Richter prefers more smoking spots outdoors on campus or for existing ash trays to be relocated.

MTSU President Sidney McPhee, in an online statement to the MTSU community, said the current policy allows smoking outdoors, 20 feet away from doorways, windows, ventilation, systems, walkways and gates. But the new restrictions will ban tobacco use regardless of whether you are inside or outside a campus building.

“Our new policy will restrict the use of all forms of tobacco products, including, but not limited to, cigarettes, pipes, cigars, chewing tobacco and snuff, as well as smokeless electronic cigarettes and other similar devices,” McPhee said.

At first, I thought it was a ban on the act of smoking on campus, but it’s not. According to MTSU President Sidney McPhee, the policy extends to smokeless tobacco and electronic “smokeless” cigarettes.

This policy is just really dumb. And it’ll be hard to enforce, I think.

CampusReform.org covered this story last week.

The Daily News Journal reports:

MTSU student Laurence Tumbag of Jackson called news of a 9.8 percent tuition increase “unfortunate, because as college students we are struggling enough as it is.”

A senior majoring in social work and sociology, Tumbag’s tuition is paid in full through a scholarship.

“I’m fortunate,” he said. “I don’t have to factor in how I pay the difference.”

But he realizes how many other students and their families may struggle to make up the added costs.

The Tennessee Board of Regents approved increased tuition and fee rates Thursday for the six universities, 13 community colleges and 27 technology centers it governs. The board also approved a plan to provide a 3 percent cost of living increase for TBR employees.

Maintenance fee and tuition increases will result in an 8.8 percent revenue increase for Austin Peay State University, East Tennessee State University, and Tennessee State University; a 9.8 percent revenue increase at MTSU and Tennessee Tech University; and an 11 percent revenue increase at the University of Memphis.

The new rates will generate 9.5 percent revenue increases at all of the state’s community colleges and Tennessee Technology Centers.

While 10% sounds like a lofty number, it’s actually just a little more than $200 per semester in most instances.

As states are continuing to feel the effects of a sluggish economy, more and more states are increasing tuition rates to cover higher education expenses.

These stories are often sensationalized. In Pennsylvania, students were in an uproar over the state cutting 50% of state funding to the university system. What wasn’t reported was that it only amounted to usually less than 10% of the total university budget.

People can manipulate percentages because – at first glance – many of us can’t wrap our heads around what percentages are as raw numbers.

I think it is very important for me to first say: Death is a tragic event, no matter how it happens, and particularly to someone who seemingly had her whole life ahead of her. That being said, we must approach the death of MTSU basketball player Tina Stewart from the perspective of our justice system, which will sort out fact from emotion to discover what actually happened on the night of March 2nd.

Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have come a long way, since they burst onto the scene in the mid-2000s. They’ve brought old friends together, toppled tyrannical governments, and even perhaps offered insight into a murder case that hits close to home at MTSU.

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