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Resolution banning smoking vetoed by former SGA president
Tiffny Frazier will back new resolution
Heather Strojek
Issue date: 10/12/06 Section: News
Source: The Herald

 

Adam Purtee, computer science major of Paragould, smokes a cigarette outside of the Computer Science and Mathematics building Wednesday afternoon.

Last semester, the Student Government Association passed a resolution to ban smoking on campus.

Some people may be asking what happened to the ban as students are still being allowed to smoke on campus.

Candace Martin, last year's SGA President, vetoed the resolution without informing any of the senators.

Tiffny Frazier, the current SGA President, said she was unsure as to the reason for the veto.

The resolution was introduced because students complained about others who clogged the entrances to buildings while they were smoking.

The smoking ban was brought up during Colleges Against Cancer's Relay for Life.

Petitions were started in the spring of 2005 and over 1,000 students, smokers and non-smokers, signed the petition.

The resolution stated that smoking would be limited to open air parking lots.

The 87 receptacles on campus would be moved to the edge of parking lots and 25 feet away from any major doors or entrances.

Most of the receptacles on campus are located near the entrances of buildings.

The current smoking policy states that smoking is permitted 20 feet from any door or entrance.

This policy does not adhere to the current state law of no smoking within 25 feet of a building.

Frazier said that the policy should be enforced with a committee that has a shared governance to determine fines and sanctions.

"The current (smoking) policy needs to be enforced," Frazier said.

"When the resolution was brought to the SGA, few were strongly against it but had changed their minds by the end of the next meeting," said Raven Lawson, of Powhatan, author of the resolution to ban smoking.

"We are doing this for health reasons, not to be mean," Lawson said. St. Bernards Regional Medical Center was the first place to ban smoking from doorways. The city of Jonesboro is considering banning smoking 25 feet from the cemetery that is across the street from St. Bernards Regional Medical Center.

In order to get the ban reinstated, the resolution has to be reintroduced to the SGA and then voted on by the Senate. If the president vetoes the resolution, he or she must inform the senators within a week of doing so. "I will back the resolution if it is supported by the senate, students and faculty," Frazier said.