Smoking resolution does not pass

When it came time to vote on the smoking resolution at the Student Senate meeting Sunday night, the result was a seven to seven tie. One member abstained from voting, and the resolution did not pass.

The resolution began as a campus-wide smoking ban and then turned into a discussion about regulating designated smoking areas. The final result was a resolution stating that smoking must be done at least 20 feet away from all buildings.

Current rules say students must be 10 feet from buildings.

Senior Kristyn Potter, the student affairs chair, said she thought more senators would vote for the resolution. After crafting a compromise at the forum hosted about the resolution and reading feedback forms, it was anticipated to pass, she said. At the forum, 57 students supported a campus-wide smoking ban, 26 opposed the resolution and four were indifferent. Potter said one of the main reasons it did not pass was because the students who voted against the resolution did not view smoking on campus as a problem, not because of the quality of the resolution.

"It just shows that a controversial issue cannot be won over on either side," she said.

The student affairs committee met Wednesday to discuss the resolution, but nothing drastic will be done as a result, because the committee fulfilled its responsibility. Potter said the next step is accepting feedback from students and observing the campus environment.

Normally, once a resolution is voted on, it is not allowed to be brought up again until the next session, but because the vote resulted in a tie, the resolution could be mentioned again after it went through certain procedures, Potter said.

Reactions from the resolution not being passed are varied from very happy with the result to not understanding how the resolution did not pass, she said.

"The vote of the resolution wasn't black and white, and it's not ever going to be an issue you can just easily resolve," she said.

Senior Dan Heagney,

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member of Student Senate, said he mainly voted against the smoking resolution because it was based on a problem that he views as only a minor inconvenience. Heagney helped revise the current resolution to make it passable, but still didn't agree with the foundation.

"I kind of figured that [the vote] would come down to very close, or dead even, like it did," he said.

Heagney said one benefit of the resolution is that it has made smokers more aware of the respect they should show non-smokers, by realizing that their right to smoke could be taken away. He said he thought the lobbying for the passing of the resolution seemed somewhat unfair, because the non-smokers had one group fighting for the resolution to pass, while the smokers didn't have any representation working to fight against the passage of the resolution.

"I don't think CASE [Campus Community for Smoke-free Environments] is going to stop their crusade against smoking - I just don't know how much can be changed," Heagney said.

Heagney said that Interim President Darrell Krueger is in favor of the smoking resolution, and it's ultimately up to Krueger to take the issue to the Board of Governors. Simply telling people they cannot smoke won't solve the problem, but Truman will probably be a smoke-free campus in 15-20 years as the amount of smokers in the United States decreases, he said.

Brittany Camacho, with the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Specialists, said she was surprised the resolution didn't pass based on the data from the Health Opinion poll that was sent out in September, she said.

"Eighty three percent of students were for 100 percent smoke-free campus," she said.

The resolution came about when TPCS realized that the Board of Governors policy didn't say anything about smoking, she said.

"We would like to go ahead and change [the policy] more to what is now taking place in the United States," she said.

Camacho said a lot of students will be disappointed by the failure of the resolution, but it's not the end of working toward a smoke-free campus.

"As far as our profession goes, we really don't think it's a matter of 'if', it's a matter of 'when,' and we're moving towards a smoke-free society - and I think it's going to happen with or without Truman making the individual decision," Camacho said.

Even though the resolution didn't pass, TPCS will continue to advocate a smoke-free environment, and will speak to Faculty Senate and possibly the Board of Governors to advocate and educate about smoke-free policies, Camacho said. Any future policy changes should be a student run initiative, which the Senate is not necessarily needed for.

TPCS members said one reason the resolution didn't pass was due to an uneducated decision. Alumnae Nancy Johnson, who works with Camacho and TPCS, said this problem was exemplified when the Senate mentioned Faculty Senate and Staff Council already had not passed something concerning the resolution, which wasn't true.

"The resolution came out that said 20 feet, and everyone [at the forum] was like, 'I thought we voted and thought it was great, [and] came together for designated [areas],'" Johnson said. "So, [students] felt that [Student Senate] didn't even listen to them anyway."

Although the resolution did not pass, Johnson said that TPCS has accomplished the necessary task of educating students about smoking policies.