In a marathon legislative session Monday night, the University of Massachusetts Student Government Association (SGA) Senate voted to create an alternative to a tobacco ban passed by the school’s Faculty Senate earlier this year – which is slated to go into effect in 2013 – with a plan that calls for designated smoking areas on campus.
The “Designated Smoking Area Policy,” which calls for the campus to allow smoking only in specific areas on school property instead of the complete prohibition of all tobacco products on campus – which was outlined in the plan passed by the Faculty Senate – was passed at the end of a three-and-a-half hour meeting.
The motion and the tobacco policy-at-large were discussed by motion-sponsor, Sen. Nate Lamb and SGA President Yevin Roh – who wrote the basis for the plan ultimately passed by the Faculty Senate, dubbed “A Tobacco-Free UMass Amherst,” his freshman year as an SGA senator.
Roh, who has to sign or veto the motion within seven days after it’s passed, said that he is in favor of the tobacco-free rules, but admitted that there are flaws with it – such as the prohibition of electronic cigarettes or the ban of smoking in personal vehicles on school property.
Lamb insisted that the motion be passed at Monday’s meeting, instead of having it tabled for another week, because, he noted, a committee formed to discuss the tobacco policy meets for the first time next Tuesday. The committee is composed of members of the faculty, in addition to two graduate students and three undergraduates – including Roh.
The eight-day gap between the motion’s passage and the committee’s meeting forces Roh to make his decision to sign into law or to veto the measure before the group meets.
Lamb said that the motion should be ready for discussion the first day the committee meets, and not lost in mid-session business.
The motion comes after a ballot question in the SGA’s fall election gauging student opinion on the tobacco-free rules – which are set to go into effect July 1, 2013. Almost 75 percent of those who voted in the online election – which is about 6 to 8 percent of the total student population – voted in favor of designated smoking areas as a replacement of current plans.
Any measure passed by the SGA, however, does not have the authority to overrule the Faculty Senate’s decision.
And while the “Designated Smoking Area Policy” motion was passed by the Senate at Monday’s meeting, the group tabled four other motions for its next meeting.
Other passed legislation at Monday’s meeting included a distribution of $1,900 for the UMass Jiu Jitsu club to hire an instructor, and $1,480 for the Pan Hellenic Council to fund UDance, a group that raised $25,000 last year for sick children.
Darlene Vu, a sophomore public health major and People’s Market employee, was appointed to the vacant Northeast Residential Area Senate seat at Monday’s meeting. And Patrick Prendergast, editor of both UMass and the Five College literary journals, was appointed to the Judiciary and complimented for his philosophical take on the position.
Sam Hayes can be reached at [email protected].
