On Jan. 28 the Student Senate met and the ad hoc Smoking Review Committee made a proposal for a new campus smoking policy. The committee suggested in their proposal that there be a ban on smoking in what they considered to be the entire academic area of campus, the continued presence of the 25-foot rule in non-academic areas of campus and a monetary fee of $50 for infringement of any part of the campus smoking policy. The only area of campus considered to be non-academic is Royce Hall and the resident halls.

While Student Senate was only attempting ti solve a significant problem, their proposal is flawed and not in the best interest of UW-Platteville as an institution.

What in my mind seems to be one of the most prominent flaws in the Senate’s plan is that it will isolate too many students. According to a survey conducted by the Smoking Review Committee and to University Health Services, around 700 out of approximately 6,600 students at UW-P are smokers. Assuming these figures are accurate, this policy would have a significant negative impact on over 10 percent of the student body.

The administration should be concerned with UW-P becoming smoker-unfriendly by enacting such a policy. This could provide cause for smoker students to transfer to other universities, and could also be a deterrent to prospective students who smoke. With the university already financially strained due to a tighter state budget, policies that could unnecessarily deter student interest should be avoided, as such policies would likely strain the university further.

Another serious flaw in the proposed plan comes in how they prepared the plan and gathered feedback, particularly from students. The committee did survey students, distributing polls to 485 students, and receiving 69 responses. The committee stated during their proposal that they felt this was too low of a response rate, and consequently ignored the survey’s results altogether, without any further attempt to gauge student opinion.

Feeling like this was a critical step in university policy making of any kind, I opted to informally investigate student opinion myself. The result was that a majority of the students I spoke with felt that the proposed plan was too strict and unnecessary to solving the problem at hand.

“[$50] is a lot of money for students to pay,” Marshall Smith, senior psychology major, said. “Designated [smoking] areas seem like the best idea.” Students on campus often don’t have a lot of money, and $50 is an unreasonable citation for a student to pay for simply smoking in a non-designated outdoor area.

Another area where many students were concerned was with faculty smokers. With many faculty members who smoke, it’s unreasonable to make them go all the way off campus between classes or during breaks to smoke, Anna Markgren, sophomore mechanical engineering major, said.

While I think it’s appropriate to applaud the Senate’s Smoking Review Committee for it’s diligence and attention toward what is a significant issue on campus but it’s unfortunate that a few flaws and oversights brought them to what I feel is a plan that will alienate too many students and create animosity from students.