If the campus community has its say, UW-Platteville’s academic sector will be smoke-free.

The results of the campus-wide poll regarding a proposed smoking ban were released on March 10. According to the poll results, of the 2,130 people who voted, 69 percent were in favor of the ban. Chancellor David Markee will now make a final decision on whether the proposed ban will be adopted.

“I was very pleased with the turnout,” Jeffrey Schwan, chair of the smoking policy committee, said. Schwan also posted the results of the poll on Facebook.

Graphic by Becky Ninneman

The poll was open to those who had an active UW-P username and password. Initially, there was going to be one poll for everyone on campus, but each governance body wanted to know the opinions of its constituents, Dan Frommelt, UW-P webmaster, said.

There were some issues that arose with the vote tabulation. One member of the student body logged into the voting booth, and cast his or her ballot without making a yes or no selection, Frommelt said.

Also, one member of the classified staff and one member of the academic staff qualified as a student by being enrolled in classes and both exercised their eligibility to vote twice, Frommelt said. Theoretically, those two individuals could have voted yes under one poll and no under the other but because of how the poll is designed, there is no way of knowing, Frommelt said.

Schwan said he will go to the other governance bodies and recommend they file their own recommendations with Markee.

Carol Beals, president of American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Wisconsin State Employees Union Local 1622, said UW-P classified staff decided they wanted to leave the decision up to individuals and will not make any recommendation to Markee.

Schwan said Student Senate will have a memorandum completed over spring break that will outline the Senate’s opinion. The memorandum will be authored by members of the smoking policy committee and presented at the March 31 meeting, Schwan said.

“What I do foresee is the Senate saying we are in favor of the proposed policy,” Schwan said.