When the Washburn Student Government Association put a smoking referendum on the ballot in its last election, they were hoping to draw voters in – and it did just that. Although, the T-shirts with the stick figure Richard Simmons on them might have had some effect, too.

Whatever the reason, over 300 more people voted on the smoking referendum than voted for the president and vice president-elect. The results were clearly in favor of a smoking ban. Apparently there is a minority of smokers on campus or they were taking a smoke break during elections. There were 606 people who voted in favor and 250 who voted against making Washburn a smoke-free campus.

Two years ago, WSGA conducted a similar survey, but didn’t do anything with the results, and those results can no longer be found.

This year, WSGA plans on doing something with the results by holding a Town Hall meeting on the subject.

The meeting, which will take place on April 10, in the Washburn Room, will hear from both sides about the benefits and disadvantages of putting the ban on Washburn.

There are often people who complain about walking into a doorway and having to inhale the cigarette smoke, while others argue it is their right to smoke if they want to. We hope both sides are represented well with research and valid points. This could potentially be a big step and some would even go so far as to say that it isn’t fair and that the university has no right to regulate smoking outside. Do they? We’re not sure, but we do know that the university does have the duty to protect its students, which some would argue would include protecting students from the dangers of second-hand smoke – all two seconds of it that one is exposed to when walking outside of Henderson or Morgan.

Now that students have voted in favor of this, they need to actively participate in it in order to make it happen. This wasn’t like a vote on taxes, it was just an opinion poll with T-shirts.

Make your voice heard by going to the town hall meeting on smoking.