Because they can’t fire Rich Rodriguez just yet, the University of Michigan is taking out their frustration on a different target: smokers. Michigan is considering a new policy that would ban smoking anywhere, indoors or outside, on all three of its campuses by 2011.

Purdue has also joined in the fun, considering a similar measure. These schools are looking to join nine other campuses nationwide where the policy is already in effect. Closer to home, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville has a student committee looking into this idea. Just call it smoking-ban fever.

The stated goal of Michigan’s potential policy is to create a “culture of health,” encouraging students to quit smoking or not to start in the first place, for their own well-being.

But the fact remains that despite the documented health risks of tobacco use, individuals can and should be able to decide for themselves whether they will accept those risks. Wanting to prevent the harm of secondhand smoke to bystanders is an understandable reason for your average, indoor smoking ban, but pretending that secondhand smoke could cause serious, inescapable problems outdoors is patently ridiculous.

The proposed policy, in addition to being difficult to enforce to the level of implausibility, is also paternalistic. It’s not too much to ask to require students and staff to step outside for a cigarette break. It is too much to ask them to step outside and hike to the boonies before they can smoke.

We are willing to support a “culture of health” — within reason. But such an overbearing policy would put an undue burden on those who already make the free decision to smoke. Something so unreasonable and implausible sounds a little different from building a healthier culture — it sounds like wishful thinking.