SG decides against additional survey of student opinion
Student Government won’t conduct a survey of student opinion regarding a potential campuswide tobacco ban, Morgan Smith, chairman of the Tobacco Free Carolina Study Board, announced Wednesday night.
The second-year political science student cited another survey sent to 4,000 randomly selected USC students earlier in the year by Healthy Carolina — of 700 respondents, 68 percent said they’d support a tobacco ban which would include all forms of tobacco and any product that could be used to consume it, like electronic cigarettes and hookah pipes. The results were significant enough that a second survey wasn’t necessary, she said.
“We went to two different statisticians and looked at the wording of the questions to make sure they weren’t biased,” Smith said. “They both told us that the wording wasn’t leading or anything.”
SG considered conducting a second survey, but did not think that it could reach a significantly larger group of students, Student Body President Kenny Tracy said.
“Our immediate response was ‘Should we do our own survey?’ We want student opinion,” Student Body Vice President Chase Mizzell said. “But we realized that we had valid data from the Healthy Carolina survey.”
Smith said that both Healthy Carolina and President Harris Pastides were “more than 95 percent sure they’d go tobacco-free” and that the wording of the proposed policy would be officially announced in early January, with an SG-sponsored forum to take place the following month, on Feb. 4.
However, even if these forums produce a negative response from students, it wouldn’t slow down the tobacco-free policy whatsoever, Smith said.
“The people who would come out are more likely to disagree,” she said. “We have to keep in mind, at a forum, that would draw the most passion.”
While there is a tentative timeline for the policy’s announcement, there has been explanation on how it will be enforced.
A subcommittee devoted to enforcement is headed by Capt. Eric Grabski of the USC Department of Law Enforcement and Safety. It has been exploring different enforcement options and examining the ways tobacco policies are enforced at comparable universities, but has not come to a conclusion or begun discussing routes they may take.
“We’re still considering the best way to roll it out,” Mizzell said. “It’s really important that they are exploring it as best as possible.”
Mizzell said the lack of an official enforcement policy likely won’t slow the initiative down, though.
“We’re moving forward as quickly as possible,” he said.