The Undergraduate Senate has chosen to focus on how the university smoking policy can best suit all students as one of its last acts of the legislative term.
Ben Murray, speaker of the Senate, said he hopes the Senate can reach out to the student body to find out what students want.
"Over the next four weeks, we're going to be looking into speaking with as many students as possible so we can work with the administration to better articulate a long-term smoking policy on campus," Murray said.
Murray said numerous concerned students and administrators have brought the issue to the Senate.
"We are going to link the opinions of the students and the actions of the administrators," he said.
The current university policy prohibits smoking in all academic and residential buildings, as well as all work areas. More specifically, it prohibits smoking in stairwells and entrance ways, a policy that is more difficult to enforce.
According to the Student Handbook, the smoking policy is to be enforced by all members of the university community, including faculty, staff and students.
According to Julie Weber, director of Housing and Dining Programs, the residence halls went "Smoke-Free in 2003," ending the smoking floors in the residence halls.
With the "Smoke-Free in 2003" campaign, anything attached to residence halls, including the stairs, patios and walkways, were also deemed non-smoking zones.
"I believe, in general, non-smokers and people who work in buildings are entitled to go in and out of their buildings without having to walk through smoke," Weber said. "I don't know the best way of doing that. ... There are a lot of options we could look at to make certain areas smoke-free."
The Residence Hall Association looked into the university policy's application to the residence halls last year, focusing on the Letts-Anderson Quad. The RHA passed a resolution last year that called for a ban on smoking in the LA Quad, except for in the center patio area.
Jeffrey Hanley, president of RHA, supports the Senate's focus on the smoking policy.
"I think it's an amazing idea. We need to keep it on track," Hanley said. "It's not that we're against smokers. It's a matter of keeping a clean airway for people who need to access these buildings."
Ryan Mauthe, a freshman in the School of Communication, said he believes the current policy is friendlier to non-smokers than smokers, and he would continue to smoke where he wanted if the university created designated smoking areas.
"The idea is you have to be respectful to other people - that's too restrictive," Mauthe said. "I think if it were friendly to smokers, there would be a smoking dorm or floor."
Kari Hudnell, a senior in SOC, said if the current smoking policy was enforced, it would cater more to non-smoking students, like herself, rather than to smokers.
"I think giving convenient areas [where students could smoke] would be fine," Hudnell said. "When I lived on campus, coming to and from the dorms, there was always a lot of smoke."
The Senate discussed at their last meeting numerous methods to help them gain an understanding of student opinion.
"Primarily, it is going to be individual contact," Murray said. "On a larger scale, we're looking to deploy electronic means to gain the student opinions."
The Senate always welcomes public comments at its Sunday meetings, said Murray. The meetings are at 2:30 p.m. in Kogod 118.
