Students pissed at UOW Unibar smoking ban
Students and staff who smoke have previously known where to go on campus to get a minute’s relief between classes and breaks, but now the “safe haven at the uni has been destroyed”. Complaints over the silent eradication of the cherished smoking area have made their way around the university in the form of a petition. Entitled ‘Bring Back Smoking At UniBar - UOW’, the petition currently has over 250 virtual signatures with 15 supporting voices.
The petition outlines the issues very clearly and emotionally – anger seeping through the all-caps description: “NO MORE ‘BEER AND A CIGARETTE’ BETWEEN CLASSES”. It emphatically describes how “from January 5th 2026 UOW’s Unibar has fallen to the Orwellian anti-smoking policies enforced by the administrative elite.”
In a conversation with the petition starter, they highlighted how the petition came to be only as a joke but which gained so much traction that it started taking a life of its own. They stated how, noticing other startled students around the Unibar, they came to find the ‘No Smoking’ signs, identifying it as a “betrayal after everything the Uni has put us [collectively] through.”
The fact that the Innovation campus’ smoking areas are still in use was made explicit, noting how it “services primarily STEM students” and that the “motivational treat after class is no longer.” Following a period of cuts against the Arts, resulting in almost 300 job losses just last year, these passionate supporters can’t help but wonder whether the silence behind the action was intentional and resemblant of the cuts’ strategies.
“The petition has also been heavily influenced by worry over the recent authoritative swing of our government, making us feel as though nothing is allowed anymore. The recent totalitarian protest and speech laws, whatever the eSafety commission is attempting to do and the absolute failure of the government to regulate and restrict the flow of imported tobacco were all mentioned before we finished our beers.”
Further, the petition aims to make a statement towards the right to smoke, exploring how Gen Z, specifically, has grown up watching a variety of global, environmental and economic issues already severe in nature, to which the petition starter states, “there aren’t any ‘No Smoking’ zones on a sinking ship and there’s no lung cancer on an earth with no atmosphere.”
The petition starter also mentioned the massive increase in the ‘fruity’ smells in the bathrooms, corridors and classrooms. They recount another student saying “it’s as if the Uni wants me to vape in the bathroom,” and highlighting how the attempt to reduce second-hand smoke might actually increase it because of the public bathroom alternative use.
Finally, the petition starter mentioned their concern behind the terrible effects this has on the “beautiful green spaces and duck-filled streams and ponds of campus. Instead of properly disposing of butts in marked bins, students are grinding butts into the ground and throwing them in storm drains and ponds to ‘get rid of the evidence.’
These are some of the comments people have left on the petition.
