After two years of forums and discussions, Bradley may be a smoke-free campus as soon as next semester.
Student Body President Jenna Dellaria has been working on creating a smoke-free campus plan, and she meets with Vice President for Student Affairs Nathan Thomas today to go over the proposal.
“Once that [plan] is proposed to Nathan, he’ll bring that to administration, and so then it’s in their hands again and [will depend] on what they say,” Dellaria said. “I’m hoping it’ll be implemented by next semester.”
Faculty and administration have already seen earlier drafts of the plan and have given Dellaria recommendations, so now Dellaria said she is working on refining the minor details, such as whether all of campus should be smoke-free, who should enforce the policies and the repercussions for smoking.
“It’s the minor stuff in the whole scheme of things, but the important details in order to make it work,” Dellaria said. “The options ranged from $25 fines to infractions on records to just using the honor system, so it’s finding that balance.”
Thomas said while there’s no set plan as of right now, there will be some costs associated with the final initiative.
“[The costs are] going to depend on what the final product here is,” Thomas said.
Thomas said he thinks it is important Student Senate has taken the lead on the smoke-free campus proposal. Former Student Body President Sarah Handler (’16) proposed the idea in 2014.
“We’ve asked the students to take a lead [because] if this is something that they are passionate about, this should be one of their initiatives,” Thomas said.
But some students said they weren’t even aware the initiative was in the works.
“I definitely think there should be more communication between the senators and their students,” Jake Winkle, a freshman history and political science double major, said. Winkle considers himself a regular smoker.
Freshman theater performance major Kenny Case said he feels the plan is unnecessary.
“I understand the premise of designated smoking areas, but that can make it rather inconvenient for people that might smoke a cigarette before class,” Case, who considers himself a regular smoker, said.
Case also said he thinks there should be more communication about the plan.
“I’ve only rarely heard about it,” Case said. “When I came into Bradley, I was under the impression that it had already passed, but I’ve been told it wasn’t in effect, and that was basically the end of what I’ve heard about it.”
