The Vanderbilt Student Government Senate unanimously passed a resolution regarding smoking regulations on campus Wednesday night in response to recent actions taken to make Vanderbilt smoke free.
Executive Adviser Theo Samets, along with Senator Andrew Morse and Council President John Gaffney, decided to propose the resolution about two weeks ago, after the Dean of Students Office informed VSG’s Executive Board that a decision to move to a smoke-free campus with designated smoking areas was in the process of being approved.
The resolution states that “a smoking ban with designated smoking areas on campus is not in the interest of the student body.”
Samets said the talk of banning smoking worried him.
“Immediately I became concerned, and realized that we needed to mobilize on this issue. I was concerned that this would be like the Medical Center all over again, where you need to cross over to the other side of 21st Avenue to avoid the smoke,” Samets said. “I got in touch with Andrew Morse and John Gaffney, and we got together and wrote the resolution.”
One of VSG’s concerns with a smoke-free campus with designated smoking areas is the practical enforcement of such a rule.
“It will be impossible to enforce, and that will create more tension,” said Deputy Chief of Staff Adam Meyer.
VSG also emphasized the importance of this issue in the context of student’s rights.
“If the university administration says you can’t smoke on campus, what’s next? This is a bigger issue,” Samets said. “This is bigger than just smoking, and that’s why it’s really important. It’s about students being included in discussions about legal rights.”
Gaffney agrees that this issue is about student restrictions, not just smoking.
Part of the resolution states: “Vanderbilt Student Government requests that the administration include student leaders in all discussions involving potential further restrictions on students’ rights to partake in legal activities on Vanderbilt’s campus.”
VSG President Wyatt Smith urged the Senate to consider the implications of a smoke-free campus with designated smoking areas.
“We have to think about how this will affect student spaces, like Kensington, Vanderbilt Place and Greek Row,” Smith said.
VSG is willing to consider smoking halo rules relating to building entrances. The resolution reads: “Be it further resolved that Vanderbilt Student Government supports alternative considerations to reduce secondhand smoke inhalation across campus, specifically the installation of no-smoking halos around entrances to buildings similar to the policies in place at Northwestern, Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago and other peer institutions.”
The House will vote on the resolution next week.
