Student input is needed before West Virginia University’s Board of Governors can pass a campus-wide smoking ban, said Jon Bond, Student Government Association’s executive chair for student health. Students can voice opinions on a campus-wide ban on SGA’s blog, giving University President James P. Clements insight into what the students want, Bond said. Last year, the former SGA BOG passed a resolution to ban smoking on the entire campus. SGA’s current BOG will not revisit the idea, Bond said. "We won’t be reinventing the wheel," he said. "A campus ban would be up to the administration." It would be easier for WVU to pass a smoking ban if West Virginia’s legislators passed an Indoor Clean Air Act, said Gov. Abby Sobonya, because WVU is owned by the state. "We need to say ‘you can’t smoke inside’ instead of saying ‘you can’t smoke outside,’" she said, referring to the state not passing anything either way, though WVU has been smoke-free inside buildings since 1990. The act prohibits smoking in a public place or workplace, such as a University, but allows for some exceptions, such as private residences, according to similar Clean Air Acts passed in the country. Sobonya pointed out it is legal to smoke on West Virgina’s Capitol steps and said WVU needs to take more measures to receive student input other than student forums. "The University will need to hand out fliers or try to increase support for the Tobacco Free Mountaineers instead of forums, which we know no one turns up for," she said. Bond says the University should focus more on a Health Sciences Campus ban before moving to the bigger picture. "I think the Health Sciences Campus issue put students directly in harm’s way based on the hospital going tobacco free," he said, adding the campus will have more smokers on it once the hospitals go smoke-free. "The campus-wide issue needs to be discussed, and all issues need to be considered, which takes time," Bond said. Sobonya agreed, and said not only does the University need input, it needs more time to research and consider an issue that would affect students. Clements has previously said developing a smoking ban takes years. A smoking ban was implemented at Towson University when he was Provost there. He is currently developing a task force to work on the issue.
SGA seeks student input, opinions on smoking ban
Published: Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 23:10
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