A Fresno City College student is proposing to ban smoking on campus with an initiative on the Associated Student Government ballot.
Leon Velasco, a counseling student and ex-smoker at Fresno City College, proposed the ban at ASG’s Feb. 14 meeting. He proposed the smoke-free campus proposal after having to deal with an overwhelming amount of smoking on FCC’s campus.
“I’m having to hold my breath or hold my sweater over my face when walking by the central fountain,” Velasco said. “Something’s got to give.”
Velasco was finally motivated to go forward and pitch his idea after he was threatened by classmates after he approached them to stop smoking near classrooms on the second floor of the social sciences building.
“We [non-smokers] are threatened a lot,” Velasco said. “And that’s why a lot of this [anti-smoking sentiment] isn’t out there.”
According to Velasco, the proposal was welcomed by the Associated Student Government when he pitched the idea. However, the Senate decided against taking any action, following a precedent of placing smoking-related issues on the ASG ballot.
ASG President Cindy Quiralte said that she personally supports a ban on smoking, adding that it would be considerably easier to ride around campus on her bicycle with cleaner air.
However, Student Activities director Sean Henderson said two smoking initiatives placed on the ballot yielded the same result: students supported designated smoking areas, not an outright ban on smoking, Henderson said in an email obtained by The Rampage.
Following the passage of the designated smoking areas, ASG representatives have begun the process of moving the student-supported measure through the college’s process for adoption. Henderson said that ASG formed a subcommittee of FCC’s Strategic Planning Council to develop a plan for implementation of the smoking areas.
Quiralte said that the proposal would move from the committees to the three other constituency groups of the college: the Academic Senate, the Classified Senate, and the President’s Cabinet. Once those groups sign-off on the proposal, the final decision is made by FCC’s interim President Tony Cantu.
While ASG works on the already approved smoking plan, Henderson said that Velasco could not propose another smoking proposal on the ballot because the student government passed a moratorium on new initiatives in spring of 2011, which bars anyone from proposing another plan until 2015.
Student Government Legislative Vice President Nathan Alonzo echoed Henderson, saying that Velasco had no legal standing to propose the new initiative because of the moratorium.
Henderson said that he did not believe that the current student government could reverse the moratorium passed by the previous ASG.
During the student government meeting, however, Velasco said he was told that, given he would meet a certain quota of legitimate signatures on a petition, he would be able to place his proposal on the ballot.
Velasco shrugged off the moratorium and is hoping to obtain petitions to place his smoke-free campus proposal on the ballot this semester. In anticipation, he created a petition online at Change.org to garner support.
FCC’s smoking problem, he said, is an “issue long over due for action.”
