University Health Services (UHS) should be commended for its efforts to support students trying to quit smoking through its Quit and Win Challenge. It is discouraging, though, that efforts made during the week may diminish on the weekend as soon as students step back into smoky bar scenes. Just as it is important for the university to support a smoke-free campus, this responsibility should extend into the community as well. Tuesday's article ("Quit and Win challenge to promote kicking the habit") stated that "... students who are trying to quit find it much harder when they constantly see smokers all over campus." This is also true for social environments when not only students who are trying to quit, but also those offended by cigarette smoke come into direct contact with it in bars.

On Nov. 20, 2003, Colleges Against Cancer, part of the American Cancer Society club at Penn State, asked State College bars to go smoke free for one night, in correspondence with the Great American Smokeout. While none of the bars accepted the proposal, many of the managers felt that it was a great idea, but they feared losing business on the night. Bar owners said they would only go smoke free when the law is mandated in Pennsylvania.

Perhaps if all of the bars downtown collaborated on one night in February to go smoke free, in the spirit of the UHS program, students and patrons would begin to see the benefits to a social environment not clouded and overwhelmed by smoke.