The special committee formed  by the Whitewater Student Government in April 2012 to draft the smoking-ban proposal was terminated Oct. 29, since no motion was made to continue the committee.

WSG Sen. Jeffrey Winther made the motion to create the committee in April.  According to Winther’s motion, the purpose of the committee was to design a policy for a tobacco-free campus and present it to WSG.

Since the committee has been disbanded, the legislation, Resolution for a Tobacco-Free Campus, will not be considered by the WSG Senate.

Senior Michelle Bertucci and alumnus Christopher-Ryan Kautza, representatives from the Tobacco-Free Campus Coalition, presented the resolution.

Bertucci said the resolution would have resulted in a tobacco-free campus.

“We wanted to do something to improve the health of our campus community,” Bertucci said. “We worked through them and applied for a mini-grant from them in order to table, put on programs and have educational presentations about tobacco products.”

Bertucci said Carroll University used a similar policy and had a hard time implementing it.  She said it took two years for Carroll to go completely tobacco-free.

The Tobacco-Free Campus Coalition took a survey of 1,496 students, 56 percent of which were in favor of a tobacco-free campus. WSG Vice President Danielle Jordan said members of the committee did not agree with the survey.

“Students taking the survey were not thinking of the campus as a whole,” Jordan said.

Jordan said not enough students participated in the survey. Another survey was proposed, but no agreement was made.

Bertucci and Jordan agreed there was not enough time to reform the policy, and Jordan said WSG is not for or against it.

“We want our students to have their choice of what they want to do,” Jordan said.

Bertucci said the Coalition would like to continue work with WSG and wants to modify their policy.

Jordan said WSG is willing to work with the Coalition to make a policy that is accessible for students.