Student leaders are working toward solutions regarding hot topics on the CU campus.
Student input on various campus policies was generated Monday night in the UCSU and the Residence Hall Association’s open forum.
As the UCSU tri-executives introduced themselves and their responsibilities, they outlined the two policies which they said prompted the forum for student discussion: a new parking policy and a smoking ban on campus.
The parking policy dialogue was first looked at as Tri-executive Daniel Ramos gave a brief overview of the issue, then asked students for their ideas.
“We’re looking at ways to reduce the number of cars on campus and as a result CO2 emission,” Ramos said. “If this policy is adapted, we want to know what situations in which if a student didn’t have a car on campus, it would negatively affect them. What circumstances exist where you guys would need a car?”
Of the approximately 20 students who showed up, there was a handful that spoke out at every given chance.
Katie Boraz, a 21-year-old senior psychology major, voiced her concerns about several aspects of the parking policy throughout the night.
“I’m very passionate about the parking ban because it would have applied to me last year,” Boraz said. “I live about six hours away and would I not been able to drive, I wouldn’t have come to school here. It’s not like my parents could take a full day off of work to come pick me up either.”
Once Boraz finished, faint snapping could be heard throughout the west dining hall in the UMC, serving as a quiet gesture of approval from her peers.
Ramos brought up several concerns the university had, as well as solutions to help counter a new parking policy. He said administrators, too, were concerned with the policy and wondering how students would get to the mountains in order to ski if it were enacted. Ramos also said he was in contact with ski resorts and conversing about a way to have the resorts sponsor transportation buses from CU to the mountains.
Another possible solution Ramos and fellow Tri-executive Thomas Higginbotham detailed was a program called “Zimride”. Zimride is a Web site used to coordinate car pools for interested community members.
Ramos said the site can help students find contacts to carpools both inside and outside of Boulder.
Boraz once again addressed the dining room and asked for more information on the solutions that were being presented.
“I was speaking to some parents the other day about their kid needing to get an off-campus job next semester,” Boraz said. “The parents felt the student couldn’t handle a 15 [hour] credit load as well as a job if the parking ban was in effect. I also think Zimride sounds sketchy to me, being from a small town in Colorado. What type of safety precautions are being taken?”
In response to Boraz’s question, Ramos said he had not used the Zimride Web site, but rather had found background information that promoted its safety.
“There’s a type of student verification process going on,” Ramos said. “It’s like a type of Facebook where you can look at a person’s information and talk to them; it’s not sketchy in that regard but is very information-based.”
Moving back to the original task of reducing cars on campus, Higginbotham gave some facts to give students perspective of why there is a need for the policy.
“One of the big issues is that there isn’t a lot of space on central campus anymore,” Higginbotham said. “There are plans on building expansions in Will Vill. Most freshmen, even those that live on main campus, are required to park in Will Vill.”
The next major topic of the night was a new proposed smoking ban policy. Ramos once again introduced the policy saying the campus is moving forward with a non-smoking policy, but the question remains if it will be 100 percent tobacco free or not.
Ramos continued explaining the policy with information on resources CU would offer to students that smoke and how to help them quit.
“We want to know how this policy would impact students,” Ramos said. “How it affects students who smoke on campus and even students who don’t smoke on campus.”
Boraz was the first student to speak on the issue. Boraz said that although she was not a smoker herself, the policy had to be looked at from both viewpoints.
“As much as we try to put resources out there to help smokers, I feel like there was a decision already made to go ahead with this,” Boraz said. “There are several things to look at — we may have to increase time between classes for students and staff to go take smoking breaks off campus. What about students in dorms? They’ll have to go off campus in the middle of the night when they want to smoke.”
Ramos mentioned a policy implemented at Oklahoma State University that CU was also considering: a non-enforcement smoking policy.
“It changes the culture around smoking and while you’re on campus you’re less likely to smoke,” Ramos said. “I actually met with some students last weekend from OSU and they said smoking was never really a problem on campus. It’s really the whole smoking debate back and forth: one has the right to smoke and one has the right not to breathe in second hand smoke. It’s the two schools of thought that we’re basing this policy off of.”
Becca Stephens, a 19-year-old sophomore theater major, said the smoking ban could do more harm than good.
“Smoking in the residence halls would be more common if students had to go off campus to smoke,” Stephens said. “That would definitely be a fire hazard and with higher levels of smoking indoors there would be more write-ups.”
CU is considering an exemption for students who live in dorms, Ramos said, so they don’t have to traverse across campus in the middle of the night or a snowstorm. As for smoking indoors, CU uses state law in such matters and if students did so they would be committing a state violation.
Stephens then asked a question which many students seemed to agree with as the snapping again suggested.
“What good would the ban do if it was not going to be enforced?” Stephens said.
Ramos again answered.
“We want our students to be healthy and we want to be a non-smoking campus,” Ramos said. “Non-smoking campuses are now a label to drop to prospective students looking at colleges. The direction of the policy right now is that there would be several things to help students that smoke; we have resources like group counseling. We’re not banning smoking then telling students ‘good luck’; we’re here to help them.”
The tri-executives ended the night thanking students for showing up and speaking their minds. They also left with several notes on doubts addressed by those who spoke out.
Ramos, in his final few words, told students to seek out members of UCSU in their office to talk about any type of concerns on campus.
“There’s our office,” Ramos said as he pointed toward the office. ”And if you’re around the UMC and want to talk, or have coffee, or anything, stop by and meet us because we’re usually around. We want to hear what’s on your minds and we want to help.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Adrian Kun at Adrian.kun@colorado.edu.
