Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the article “SGA discusses parking proposal, smoking ban,” in the Sept. 18 issue. I take issue with SGA Sen. Chad Hall, who is quoted in the article as stating, “Students find no legitimacy in this rule . They didn’t come to us to ask us what we thought.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
In 2006, Dr. Fred Mackara, president of faculty senate, invited the officers of staff senate and SGA to meet and discuss concerns facing our respective governing organizations. After the initial meeting in November 2006, Mackara wrote an e-mail to Karen Sullivan, president of Staff Senate and Josh Shearin, then the SGA president, that outlined plans for a Smoke-Free Campus Resolution. The original draft of the Faculty Senate resolution read that the faculty senate sought “the support of the University Staff Senate, our students represented by their Student Government Association, and our university administrators for this resolution.”
The fact is clearly documented that continued efforts were made to have students, represented by their student governing body, be full participants in this health-oriented initiative.
On Sept. 9, 2007, Wilsie Bishop, vice president for health affairs and chief operating officer, assembled a committee that included Shearin, to begin plans to move the campus in the direction of a tobacco-free environment. Based on that meetings’ work a smaller working group called the Tobacco-Free Environment Task Force, was established with Shearin.
I met with SGA on Oct. 30, 2007, and answered the questions from the students. I invited continued student participation in the process and reminded them that they were represented on the Tobacco-Free Environment Task Force by the SGA president and welcomed input from them.
On Aug. 11, 2008, ETSU became a tobacco-free campus. The policy that brought this change to our campus culture was the product of a long process with participation at every level, including our student body.
Not everyone supports this policy, but that is the case with every policy, and there are those who will seek to abuse it.
But, the policy is legitimate, forged by many hands from all levels in the university, and promoting better health and working conditions for our campus. It is a policy that has thus far enjoyed great acceptance with the support of the vast majority of those of us who work and study here and who remind our peers that we need everyone’s help to shift our culture on this issue so we can all enjoy the green, clean environment of this beautiful campus.
– Fred Alsop

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