It has been said by the SGA president that even if all of the Nicholls student population signs my petition, it will not be put to a student vote because of a technicality of the wording due to the SGA’s by-laws.

I would like everyone to know the policy is now in full effect and administrators will begin disciplinary actions against those caught smoking; so please voice your opposition to the policy, but do not practice civil disobedience because it will only harm your University record.

We need to try to remind our SGA leaders that they represent the student body and they should also represent our interests. At the same time we need to show the administration on our campus we are responsible as students, and our smoking population can follow regulations. It is only when we can prove this that we can follow the rules that our administration will begin to realize we can be trusted to implement a designated smoking area policy.

However, I still ask that our SGA leadership not disregard the spirit of the petition I led and still put this issue to a student vote to allow for the best possible gauge on student feelings toward this issue. While they are not required to do this, I believe this is in the best interest of the student body, and we can work together to find a common solution to this problem.

Furthermore, I ask for the hypocrisy of our elected officials and our administration come to an end. The hypocrisy of which I am speaking is that of the reasoning for this policy being for the overall health of our student, faculty, and staff. The hypocrisy lies in the simple proven fact that six of the top 10 killers in our country are related to citizens being over-weight or obese, and our administration has not taken this issue seriously, even though it is a more prevalent killer than smoking.

I have proposed measures to our Food Advisory Administration that were immediately shot down by the SGA representatives present as wrong for our student body and unnecessary.

So I challenge our SGA representatives and executive board to re-evaluate the direction that we are going with our student population.

Are we going to eliminate one problem while we leave a larger and more deadly issue untouched? Are we going to continue the practice of us verse them politics? Or, are we going to work together, including those who disagree with us on a regular basis, so we may arrive at the solutions that are best for the current and future students of Nicholls State University, not the administration which time and time again have taken a good idea and added negative provisions to those very ideas?

Sincerely,

Peter Jenkins