A letter from Student Senate
Fellow Green Mountain Colleagues,
Over the past few years there has been a consistent pulsation regarding the policies of cigarette smoking in the campus climate. A recent mass e-mail from Student Senate attempted to garner community-wide responses in order to better understand the situation. Some of these respondents requested a complete ban of smoking on campus, others commented on how illogical the current policy is and argued for less strict regulations. Most respondents, however, called for a better understanding, implementation, and improvement of the current cigarette smoking policy of fifty feet away from any entrance to any building.
The Student Senate collected, analyzed, and synthesized the voices of each of the respondents, which consisted of thirty-six undergraduate students, three graduate students, and ten faculty members. After meeting and discussing the responses with Student Life, and using our best judgment, we have decided on the following steps which intend to assess – not divide – the actual practices on campus. First, we decided to address the issue that smoking is not acceptable in front of any entrance and should not be a behavior elicited by any campus community member. Second, in order to address this, we must seek to change this behavior by reminding all campus members that enforcement and implementation of the student handbook is the responsibility of each and every one of us.
With that said, Student Senate will be aiding all community members with reminder signs outside entrances to major buildings on campus. In order for our community to function well, we must encourage and abide by the rules we have agreed upon as members of this community, and also, by remembering that besides the responsibility to self-govern, we should also encourage and remind our peers.
Thus, Student Senate and Student Life are taking said action and will be assessing the behavior of smoking outside near entrances over the course of the next month. Simultaneously, we will be assessing and creating new policies, with any students who wish to help, that will work to better a socially healthy ambience for all of campus, including those who choose to smoke. After the end of the assessment period, Senate and Student Life will work with the student body to finalize new and improved policies in order to create respect for both those who choose to smoke and those who do not.
Student Senate welcomes all your feedback at studentsenate@greenmtn.edu. We meet from 4:00-6:00 p.m. every Wednesday in the Student Government Room (Withey basement), all meetings are open, and all are invited. Thank you very much.
Peter Davis, Student Senate President
Short URL: http://www.themountaineer.org/?p=410
Posted by editor
on Mar 3, 2009 Filed under First-Person.
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