Student Senate discussed many potential campus changes at its General Assembly Feb. 29. ranging from making Bradley a smoke-free campus to creating a sustainability minor.
Smoke-Free Campus
Back in November of 2014, Student Student Body President Sarah Handler addressed the possibility of Bradley becoming a smoke-free campus in her General Assembly report. She proposed a map of Bradley’s campus that will host six allotted locations where smoking will be allowed.
Senate held an open forum in November of 2014 to gather student opinion on whether or not to have a smoke-free campus. Fewer than 10 non-Senate students attended the forum, and though they seemed as a whole against the ban, Handler said she has heard a number of students advocate for the policy.
“We’ve heard from a number of students that this is a priority,” Handler said. “It’s something we hear from prospective students, [and] it’s a health issue.”
Junior computer science major Zack Jozwiak said he is allergic to tobacco, but he thinks Bradley should not be a smoke-free campus.
“I think the rules we have about smoking are fine, and I don’t think we have enough smokers for it to really matter,” Jozwiak said.
Jozwiak said he had a professor last semester who would smoke outside Bradley Hall before class, but it didn’t bother him.
“I don’t know if there’s people who want to hang out outside Bradley Hall who are bothered by this smoke, but from my experience, it’s never been enough of an issue for me to think I should force those people to have to struggle with their addiction,” Jozwiak said.
Senior interactive media and computer science double major Sanaa Fidahussain said she doesn’t think implementing the policy matters to many students.
“I think it would be really great just because the smell bothers me, but if it was or wasn’t [a policy], I wouldn’t really mind,” Fidahussain said. “I can’t even tell right now, so it doesn’t really matter to me.”
Members of Student Senate are currently collecting signatures for a petition to put the smoke-free campus referendum on the Student Body Officer ballot, so that when students vote for student body officers, they can also vote for or against the policy.
“We need 509 signatures, but our goal is to get much more than that,” Vice President of Internal Affairs Jenna Dellaria said. “We are hoping for 1,000 signatures. The whole point of this petition is because there has been so much debate over [this resolution].”
Student Senate officers will turn in their petitions Monday and decide if the referendum will be on the ballots for the election on April 12 and 13.
Sustainability Minor
Vice President of Academic Affairs Department Olga Krapivner proposed taking steps to create a sustainability minor. Krapivner said Handler brought the idea to the Senate cabinet, and members thought it was a good idea.
“We are in the very initial stages of exploring this minor,” Krapivner said.
Krapivner said she has set up a meeting with the Provost’s Office to gather more information on developing this.
“After we create a proposal, it will go to the Committee on Curriculum and Regulations,” she said.
Some students, however, said they don’t think the minor would be useful.
“I don’t think a lot of people would sign up for it as a minor,” junior actuarial science major Alanna Kopp said. “Having a sustainability minor, in my opinion, doesn’t sound impressive.”
While Kopp said the minor could be useful to engineering majors, she said she thinks students in those majors would not have time for the minor.
“I can’t think of another major that would have time that would actually take these [classes] and have it look good on their resume,” Kopp said.
Students with questions regarding the minor can contact Krapivner by email at <a href=”mailto:okrapivner@mail.bradley.edu”>okrapivner@mail.bradley.edu</a>, or drop by her department meetings in the Senate office, located in room 339 of Sisson Hall at 1 p.m. Fridays.
Another resolution discussed at the General Assembly concerned adding a sexual misconduct section to all course syllabi in order to create a protocol for professors when a student reports sexual misconduct to them.
Student Senators also talked about the denied resolution that proposed taking away Bill Cosby’s honorary degree from the university. Handler said President Gary Roberts said he doesn’t feel comfortable taking away a degree when Bradley has no policy for removing them.
“However, Senate is working on a press release saying we condemn what [Cosby] did, and we don’t condone sexual assault,” Handler said.
