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In its first day, more than 830 University of Maine community members completed a tobacco survey conducted by Student Government (SG). After almost five days, when the survey closed, that number jumped to 1,031.
“That is huge. To get 1,000 people on this campus to do anything is huge,” said Vice President of Student Entertainment Derek Mitchell. The survey’s participation is higher than any recent SG election.
“I think the sheer number of students who took the time to have their voices heard show that this is an issue of great importance. An issue that requires full student participation in the process,” SG President Steven Moran said.
SG created the survey to gauge student input on the potential tobacco ban. The Tobacco-Free Campus Committee (TFCC) has yet to gather input by a survey, according to Mitchell.
“Leaving this to the Tobacco-Free Campus is irresponsible,” Mitchell said. “The committee is overwhelmingly in support of the ban.” He said SG was able to work in an unbiased way, which he said the committee could not have. According to Mitchell, who acts as the student representative on the TFCC, the committee’s name is proof of its bias.
The results show more than 60 percent of the participants have never smoked, but 67 percent said tobacco use should be allowed on campus. Of the participants 768 were students and 258 were faculty or staff.
“It is not a formal study, however as an opinion survey it does provide us with very valuable information as to what students, faculty, and staff think about tobacco use on campus. I hope that it will really change the perspective that the student voice doesn’t really matter,” said Moran.
The survey was thought up during Relay for Life. Two days later, SG sought approval from its lawyer and posted it on FirstClass 8 a.m. Monday.
“I believe the survey is invalid due to the way it was distributed, the type of questions, the lack of planning and forethought of a survey that was conceived of on a Friday night and sent out on a Sunday night by a person with no survey background who also serves on the Tobacco Free Campus Committee and knew the committee was planning to send out a survey the following week,” said Director Alcohol and Drug Education Programs Lauri Sidelko.
“As far as reliability we consulted with our lawyer Brett Baber in an effort to make sure we showed as little bias as possible in the formation of the questions,” Moran said.
According to Mitchell, SG modeled its survey after one done by the Universtiy of Oregon Smoke-Free Task Force. “Her suggestion that this survey was distributed without planning and forethought is absurd,” he said. “The administration should take these results seriously. Students are the reason this university exists; their opinions should not be brushed off.”
According to Sidelko, TFCC was planning its own survey.
“The [TFCC] survey that was to go out to faculty and staff and students took into account sampling, off-campus addresses and was to be sent out on a secure server. I do not know if any of that is true of the student government survey,” Sidelko said. “I am very disappointed that Student Government would trump a statistically sound survey with their last minute, not very well thought out survey that was tested for reliability and bias by the attorney who they hire and pay. That is my initial two cents.”
“Lauri should not shoot down the results of our survey when she, and the Tobacco Free Campus Committee, have had nearly a year to assemble their own. Excuses aside, they have for so long left behind the most important piece of policy development – gauging public opinion,” Mitchell said.
So far, the TFCC has presented preliminary plans to the General Student Senate to ask for input and answer questions. The TFCC has not implemented any policy, and ultimately it will be the administrators’ choice to make the campus go tobacco free or not.
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