Smokers will have a chance to butt into the conversation regarding a smoke-free campus at the April 18 SGA senate meeting.
Interested students should attend the meeting, said Kirby Turnage, SGA president and senior in finance.
Kirby Turnage, SGA president and senior in finance, said interested students should attend the meeting, in which SGA will vote on a resolution proposing a smoke-free campus.
The other University governance groups--the University senate and staff governance groups--will also vote on the resolution at their upcoming meetings.
If the governance groups approve, the committee will draft a specific policy and plan for implementation, which will eventually go to the president's office for a final decision.
SGA recently released its own survey to gauge student interest.
"We saw it as our responsibility to collect data on our own and make sure we were getting student opinion," Turnage said.
SGA senators sent the survey to their respective colleges. It was also sent out to various student organizations.
About 3,750 people took the survey, Turnage said.
The survey results showed 51 percent strongly agreed with the proposal of a smoke-free campus, 13 percent agreed, 10 percent disagreed, and 22 percent strongly disagreed.
Four percent said they didn't care.
One option the committee has considered is "buffer zones," or zones around buildings where smoking is prohibited.
"If you look at the literature and you talk to some of the other institutions, buffer zones aren't as effective as a straight smoke-free campus," said Eric Smith, director of health promotion and wellness services. "They send a mixed message. They're actually harder to patrol and harder to enforce."
Smith said the policy might allow smoking on the sidewalks bordering campus, since they are adjacent to public thoroughfares and share a border with the city.
"That helps achieve a lot of the goals here," Smith said. "It keeps smoking from the central core of campus. It keeps it from the concourses--the areas where a lot of people are hanging out."
As for enforcement of the policy, Smith said those in violation would probably receive a warning on the first incident and an educational sanction on the second.
"It would be addressed very much from an educational perspective," Smith said. "There might be a referral over to the Medical Clinic for a smoking cessation program."
Smith said in a 2009 survey of smoke-free campuses, 67 percent reported no problems with compliance. Minor problems were reported by 33 percent, and fewer than 1 percent reported major problems.
Zero percent reported a negative impact on recruiting or admissions.
"This policy could upset a few people here and there," Smith said, "but this policy could also prevent someone from starting to smoke.
"If that's the case, we've given that person an awful lot in terms of better health."
Haroldo Toro, professor of pathobiology, said he would not quit smoking if the policy were to be implemented.
"I don't think that smokers will quit smoking as result of a ban," Toro said. "Smokers will find hiding places to continue with their habit."
Toro said he sees the policy as discrimination.
"A sizeable minority at this University enjoy smoking, a common practice in the New World long before Columbus," he said. "Outside smoking doesn't harm others and to suggest otherwise is not objectively defensible."
At the SGA senate meeting April 4, Smith said court precedent rules in favor of nonsmokers.
"If you look at all the court documents, if you look at all the legislation, the right to free air trumps the rights of the smoker time and time again in the courts," Smith said.
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