University of South Dakota Considers Going Smoke Free

It's already happened across the states of Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska, and now it could be coming to a college in one of our hometowns.

The University of South Dakota is considering a campus wide smoking ban, and it may come as a surprise that students are the ones who are behind the push to snuff out those cigarettes.

USD's student government passed a resolution back in November, and if the University gives it's go ahead, it could mean no more smoking anywhere on campus.

"It's not just about the smokers, but it's about everybody else too; the people who have to be around it all the time," says Paige Kuhn, a freshman at USD who supports a campus wide smoking ban.

Smoking anywhere on the University of South Dakota's Campus could soon be a thing of the past.

After a poll of around 1,400 students, smoke free seems to be what the student body wants.

"Sixty-two percent of the students polled wanted something stronger than the current policy on campus," says Collin Michels, President of USD's Student Government Association.

The current policy only stops people from smoking within 25 ft. of doorways, but supporters say it's their mission to snuff out smoking everywhere on campus.

"Promoting just a healthier environment for all the students especially the thousands of students who this is their home, campus is where they live, I think that's important," says Michels.

And some students agree with that healthy goal.

"Even if you're not smoking and you're around it, it's still bad for you," says Kuhn. "So I think it would be better for everybody in general if it wasn't allowed."

But others say smoking on campus doesn't bother them.

"I guess it doesn't really matter to me because I'm not a smoker, but as far as that goes, if they're outside smoking it doesn't really bother me," says Landon Beaver, a Graduate Student at USD.

As the University of South Dakota moves one step closer to becoming smoke free.

The resolution is at the University Executive Committee right now, which will decide whether the smoking ban goes into effect or not.

It's too early to tell when a decision will be made, there's no deadline, so it could take a while.

The student government president is hoping for a decision before the semester's over, that's in early May.

Even if the resolution passes it most likely wouldn't go into effect until the fall semester of this year.