After being addressed by Student Senate, the possible change to the tobacco policy continues on to the administration. Despite Senate deciding it would be best to leave the current policy in place, it’s still possible Gustavus could be a tobacco free campus sometime in the near future.

A combination of 1,403 students and faculty responded to the tobacco survey that Student Senate released during the fall of 2011. This number represents a third of the Gustavus population. Of those surveyed, 53.1 percent said they would favor a campus-wide ban of tobacco, while 27.1 percent would oppose and 19.8 percent would neither favor nor oppose the ban.

When asked if they knew what Gustavus’ policy on tobacco was, 53.8 percent of survey takers said they did not know the current policy. The policy states that tobacco use is prohibited inside buildings and within 25 feet of a building.

According to a memo addressed to the Gustavus community, the Student Senate said there was an “insufficient amount of support for a tobacco free campus within the results of the Tobacco Survey,” and  Senate “urges the college to increase campus awareness of college policies and enforcement of said policies.”

Despite Senate’s desire not to change the tobacco policy, the administration still has the final authority on the decision, and almost decided to go tobacco-free last year without the knowledge of the Senate.

“What is interesting is that Senate didn’t create this project, it was the nursing majors,” Junior Erik Bryz-Gornia said. Erik  has been strongly involved with this project since the start of the school year.

The project was rejected last year due to insufficient student input/data. That lack of information is what lead to the Senate being involved this year.

“It’s out of the Senate’s hands now …” Bryz-Gornia said. “It should be presented to the Board of Trustees in April or May.”

The issue the Senate and JoNes Van Hecke, the Student Senate adviser, face is that it is impossible to know how much weight the Senate resolution will hold when compared to the tobacco free resolution and the survey results when they are presented to the administration and Board of Trustees.

Enforcement was also an issue touched on in the survey.  Of those surveyed, 53.1 percent believed that the tobacco policy wasn’t enforced or was inadequately enforced. Only 6.4 percent believed that the policy was strongly enforced.

Of those surveyed, 80.2 percent said they have experienced second hand smoke, while only 49.2 percent said that it was a concern/annoyance. A majority of those surveyed agreed that near entrances of buildings, especially dorms, and walking across campus was where they came across second hand smoke.

In contrast to second hand smoke, only 30.6 percent of students said that chewing tobacco was a concern/annoyance. Students are encouraged to voice their concerns or comments on the potential policy change to administration.