• Industry News

Students Support Ban on Smoking: 11 Percent of Campus Votes

Published: 2010-10-20    Views:162 reads

 

Students passed a referendum Friday that could restrict smoking on campus.

On last week's Student Government Association ballot, students could vote for homecoming king and queen, whether to pass an updated SGA constitution and whether smoking should be banned on campus.

Two-thirds of voters said they were in favor of a smoking ban.

Because the ban was posed as a referendum - gauging support for a possible future bill - no smoking ban is in place yet.

"All that's been decided so far is students are largely in favor of a smoking ban," said Gregory Locke, the SGA Franklin College senator who co-sponsored the proposal.

Though two-thirds of voters favor a ban, just 11 percent of the student body voted, which means 7 percent of students support the ban.

"From my initial viewing of the results, I don't think that's enough to move toward the complete ban," said SGA President Josh Delaney. "I don't think it's that overwhelming."

But given the majority of voters' concern, he said his next course of action is outlining a plan for some sort of restriction on smoking.

A restriction could ban smoking near the doors of academic buildings, near residence halls and on the second-floor breezeway beside the Miller Learning Center.

Smoker William McCarty, a sophomore from Lawrenceville, said he knows he must respect others' personal space.

But when non-smokers walk by him while he is smoking, they only briefly inhale the smoke.

Plus, there are other MLC entrances for people who don't want to breathe in the smoke around the second-floor breezeway, he said.

Smoker Jake Hester, a sophomore from Snellville, said he is not opposed to a partial ban that restricts smoking around high-traffic spots such as Tate.

But he said he would probably smoke in banned areas if he felt he needed to.

"It pushes quitting, but people are still going to smoke," he said.

Sophomore Jory Romans from College Park doesn't smoke, and he said smoking on campus should be regulated.

"My health should be taken into consideration," he said. "I don't want to breathe in contaminated air."

Locke said any type of smoking ban likely would not take effect for a couple of years.

SGA has to form a well-considered plan first, he said, and two years would give smokers time to try to quit.

Delaney said smokers should not worry too much.

"For students who really care deeply about smoking," he said, "I don't think these results are significant enough that they have to worry about not ever bringing their cigarettes to campus again."