Santa Fe College opted not to follow UF's lead by banning smoking on campus.
SFC's College Senate voted 17-9 against a campus-wide ban during its general meeting Tuesday.
Santa Fe College President Jackson Sasser said he would not enforce the ban unless the Career Services, College Senate and Student Senate are in all in favor the ban. The College Senate is composed of SFC faculty members, unlike the Student Senate, which voted to oppose the ban last week.
However, all three groups agreed that smoking is a problem at Santa Fe and that regulations must be tightened so people don't abuse the privilege.
Some students voiced concerns that that the ban would push all smokers to parking lots, where accidents would be more likely to occur. Currently, smoking is permitted in designated "smoking huts" and in areas away from buildings.
Student Senate Internal Affairs Director and Health Science Senator Eric Florestan addressed the College Senate before the vote. He reminded the College Senate that the Student Senate voted against the ban 42-10 and pointed out that the current rules are not enforced well.
Florestan said the Student Senate would be reviewing the current situation to better enforce existing regulations and expressed interest in working with the College Senate in lieu of a ban.
Many faculty members said they felt that it was better to try to enforce current smoking restrictions before establishing a ban.
While the ban did not pass, members of the College Senate did pass a motion to establish a committee to re-evaluate smoking areas and make recommendations for changes, research the consequences of a campus-wide smoking ban and work with student government to better enforce current restrictions.
Susan Beverung, a nursing professor and the SFC Nursing College coordinator, will be heading the committee to reassess the smoking situation.
"Hopefully by having students involved in creating a solution, we will see better compliance with current policies," Beverung said.
She plans to team with student senators and committee members to create assessment by evaluating smoking policies on other campuses, looking at how they are enforced and if they are effective.
The committee will also look into human resource-related issues associated with employee rights. Several faculty members proposed giving students access to resources that would provide support to those looking to drop the habit. Many voices supported the notion and the matter will be looked into by the committee.
Finally, it will assess the success rate of smoking bans and how they are related to decreasing smoking and report back to the three groups, who will re-evaluate the situation in the coming months to decide if a campus-wide ban will become necessary.
