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A resolution banning smoking on West Virginia University’s Health Sciences Campus passed during Wednesday’s Student Government Association meeting.
All but two of the 13 governors – Paul Kast and Abby Sobonya – voted for the ban.
Gov. Ron Cheng proposed an amendment "student input, collaboration, compromise and awareness for a progressive mode of reform," which was added unanimously to the resolution before it was voted on.
"Right now, the resolution is a smoking ban with only administration input, and technically we are supporting that," Cheng said. I want to make it clear that SGA is supporting a ban that involves students."
While Gov. Scott Covitz felt the resolution had "no student backing at all" before the amendment, he chose to vote "yes" because of its addition.
Cheng said adding the amendment did not affect the ban in anyway, but ensured the student voice in the matter.
"We still have a resolution that supports a ban," he said. "For the governors who are hesitant, this is like a settlement for both parties, a win-win situation."
Gov. Taylor Richmond, who drafted the resolution, said the clause should have been included in the original draft and was glad Cheng proposed it.
"It was an oversight by the governors that it wasn’t in there," Richmond said. "SGA has been good to show support of student input on all policies."
Having SGA President Jason Zuccari on the University’s Board of Governors is another a representative of the student body, Richmond said.
Zuccari will present the resolution at the Nov. 6 BOG meeting.
Sobonya asked Richmond if SGA was voting on the idea of a ban or supporting a future policy during the discussion.
"Support the ban. The resolution goes to the University’s Board of Governors, and they address the policy," he said. "We can’t support a policy, that’s the job on the University’s Board of Governors to formulate."
Sobonya and Kast both hesitated before voting against the resolution.
"Like most students, I am unsure of how the University is going to enforce (the ban)," Kast said. "I voted ‘no’ because I don’t believe in supporting a policy, and I don’t see anybody enforcing the smoking rules that we have now."
Kast does not believe in taking the rights away from students who smoke because smoking is an individual choice.
Sobonya also hesitated and voted "no" because she was unsure if her decision would infringe upon a smoker’s rights.
"There is no state law, or law in Mon. county that bans smoking," she said. "I’m not even sure if (banning smoking on the Health Science Campus) is legal."
She added that no policy was made after SGA drafted a campus-wide smoking ban resolution last year.
Student Health Chair Jon Bond, who had been fighting for the BOG to pass the resolution, was glad it passed.
"This is one stop in the process of becoming not only a healthy campus, but a healthy state," he said.
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You can smoke in public = that's a right.