Recently a proposal to ban smoking on campus has been brought forward to administration.
This proposal, if passed, can potentially ban smoking on the entire Saint Xavier University campus. This has led to many students questioning how the decision to propose such a ban has come to be.
The Saint Xavier Council after conducting a survey of the student body has decided to propose the ban.
The Xavierite staff feels that SXC has potentially overestimated the percentage of students that agree with them on this issue.
According to the survey taken by only four hundred people (which included faculty, staff and students), 67% percent agreed that they would support a smoke free campus.
We also did some research and concluded that a proper representative sample is based on the university’s population and should consist of around 900 students. According to SurveyMonkey.com, the margin of error for the survey done by SXC, is around five percent.
No one on the staff of The Xavierite was ever approached about the survey or even aware that the survey had existed.
Apparently, the survey was conducted in the diner at some point on SurveyMonkey.com.
We are unsure of when the said survey took place and none of the staff members saw the opportunity to even take the survey.
Most of the staff members agreed that we would happily like to be able to respond to the survey so they could feel fairly represented, too.
Overall, we are not completely against the proposal because it has some obvious benefits.
We had even agreed that giving smokers a designated area on campus, while putting the rest of campus as off limits would be a good resolution to please people on both sides of the issue.
The staff also questions the urgency of this issue.
While we do not necessarily oppose a smoke free campus, we think there may be more pressing issues present within the university.
The rising cost of tuition and the recent cyberbullying incidents seem to be bigger issues that have more of a direct effect on students.
Some of our staff does consist of smokers – two staff members to be correct.
However, the majority of us – those who do not smoke – were caught wondering why this issue and why now.
This is not a defense of smoking. We at The Xavierite do not at all condone smoking – a habit that has been linked to causing cancer as well as a plethora of other health problems.
However, we do recognize that banning smoking can infringe on the rights of students.
If the administration decides to go through with the ban, we are curious to know how far they will go to regulate it.
What parts of campus will be off limits?
Will it include the VAC and the Pulaski Center?
Also, how will the ban be enforced?
But, the survey seems incredibly flawed to the staff.
We hope that more transparency is given to the student body concerning this survey and the particulars of the survey thereof.
Letter to the Editor Policy
Here at The Xavierite we try to represent the thoughts and opinions of the study body and Saint Xavier community within our Viewpoints section.
If you feel that ther is a story that should have been covered and was not of if you have criticisms or concerns about our coverage, the best way to voice your opinion directly is through a Letter to the Editor.
Please send an email with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line to thexavierite@yahoo.com.
If you are a student be sure to include your name and major in the email. If you are a member of the staff or faculty be sure to provide your name and title/position.
We are always searching for feedback. All thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated.
Letters may be edited for content if they contain profanity, libel or do not otherwise correspond with ethical practices in journalism.
Letters may also be printed at the editor’s discretion.
The Xaverite Staff
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