The future of smoking at Saint Louis University is still hazy.
After receiving encouragement from the SLU students, faculty and staff throughout the semester, Student Government Association President Andrew Clifton went before the President’s Coordinating Council to discuss the possibility of a smoke-free University. The PCC, made up of senior administrators, representatives of the faculty and staff and the SGA president, makes recommendations to University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., on issues of policy and operation.
Clifton said that he and Carly Caminiti, vice president of smoke.free.slu, presented information on the smoke-free proposal for SLU’s campus. Clifton said that he was motivated to do so after 1,429 students voted in favor of such a proposal during the Feb. 25 SGA elections.
“When I saw how important it was to SLU students, I made it a priority to bring it to the PCC and recommend it as a policy change at SLU,” he said.
However, “it was clear from [Biondi] that he was against it in pretty much every way,” Clifton said. “I don’t think [Biondi] and certain other administrators took very much stock in the opinions of students on this issue.”
After about 45 minutes of debate, Clifton said that the PCC voted 8-6 in favor of recommending the smoke-free proposal to Biondi, a recommendation that Biondi initially denied.
“That did upset me,” Clifton said. “He gave it three seconds of thought by ruling on it, which I thought was very telling.”
“What [Biondi] indicated at the time was that he wasn’t . prepared to accept it at that point in time because he had concerns,” said PCC member Kent Porterfield, Ed.D., vice president of student development. Porterfield indicated that Biondi’s concerns included the lack of an outline for communicating the policy to the University community and plans for enforcing it.
“It was a fairly close vote-there clearly is some disagreement [within the PCC] on whether it’s the right thing to do,” Porterfield said.
Clifton said that, after last week’s PCC meeting, he presented Biondi with more information regarding effective communication and enforcement of similar proposals at other universities, at which point Biondi decided to reconsider his original decision.
Caminiti, who worked with Clifton to bring the new information to Biondi, was pleased with the feedback from other smoke-free schools.
“The response from all the schools we have talked to [that] went smoke free was very positive,” she said. “We can draw from [that information] to make a strong policy for SLU.”
Porterfield said that the PCC will probably discuss the smoke-free proposal again during its May meeting, at which point a new recommendation will be made to Biondi.
“If I had to question why it was being brought back [during the May meeting] . [I’d say it’s intended to] let the issue drag on and kill it during the summer, which is a lot easier to do than killing it during the [academic] year,” Clifton said. “You can kind of predict how these things go.”
“When new information is available, I don’t think it’s uncommon for things to come back to the PCC,” Porterfield said.
Porterfield stressed the fact that the PCC does not exist to make decisions on SLU policy, only to offer Biondi guidance in his decision-making process. Ultimately, Biondi makes many or most decisions regarding University policy.
“When students put forth something like that . they’re making a recommendation [to Biondi],” Porterfield said. “Reconsidering the decision doesn’t mean that it will be approved, but it does mean that there will be more discussion on it.”
“A smoke-free campus has been the most talked about topic on campus for the last two semesters,” Caminiti said. “People here do want a smoke-free campus … and we hope as a group that [Biondi] recognizes that.”
Biondi could not be reached for comment before press time.
