According to a 2010 National Interview Health Survey, nearly one in five American adults smoke cigarettes. To help lessen the impact of public smoking, college campuses across the country have taken measures to become completely “smoke-free.”

Luis Carbajal, president of Wichita State’s Student Government Association, is on a mission to add WSU to that list by creating a campus wide smoking ban. Carbajal said this would include all campus buildings and campus grounds, leaving no designated areas for student, staff and faculty smokers.

“We’re pushing for a completely smoke-free campus,” Carbajal said. “We have over 1,100 different colleges and universities that have gone completely smoke-free.”

Carbajal said this includes all of the public campuses in the states of Iowa, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The difference is that they are mandated by their respective states to be smoke-free.

Carbajal said instead of being a state issue, the question of whether smoking should be allowed on campuses should be left up to the schools.

“Rather than pressuring (the Kansas Board of Regents) into making it a state issue, we (the student body presidents) decided that each school would just decide on their own policy,” Carbajal said.

One of the current issues with smoking on campus is enforcement. SGA Legislative Director Darren Beckham said creating a complete ban could be easier to enforce and could even change the overall culture of the campus.

“When you look at different schools and what they’re doing, there are a number of responses,” Beckham said. “Some of them are just trying to change the culture but not necessarily doing anything disciplinary, whereas other schools are saying they’ll issue warnings and then tickets.”

Beckham said the trick is figuring out where the support lies with the students and tailoring a policy for WSU specifically. 

Both Beckham and Carbajal will be addressing the full Senate with more information and hope to present a formal resolution soon.

Carbajal said that they are still trying to gauge support and opposition and want more students to have a chance to debate.

To help with this, Carbajal will be announcing public forum dates to offer more information and a place to express more opinions. 

SGA meets Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Rhatigan Student Center room 305.