As the academic year comes to a close, so do the three Undergraduate Student Government initiatives. USG conducted student surveys about a smoking ban on campus and worked to improve neighbor relations and transfer student experiences.

Smoking ban on campus

USG sent out a 10-question survey asking students their thoughts on a campus-wide smoking ban and launched a smoke-free committee at the beginning of November. In March, USG sent out a second survey that found 34 percent of students “strongly disagreed” that St. Thomas should become a tobacco-free campus, while 32 percent “strongly agreed.”

USG president Greg Scharine said although only two surveys were conducted during the initiative, many questions were answered.

“First off, our initial goal was not to go smoke-free. Our initial goal was, knowing that St. Kate’s went smoke free, knowing the growing health concerns in the nation, we wanted to find out does St. Thomas want to go smoke free? Is it possible to go smoke free?” Scharine said. “We found out less than half of St. Thomas students smoke but only about 60 percent want to go smoke free.”

Scharine said the data will be compiled and used to keep the conversation going next year.

“Success was definitely achieved because we got the word out. We found out that this is a huge topic on campus,” Scharine said. “The answer isn’t clear yet, but we definitely know this will be an issue, and this conversation we started this year will transfer to next year.”

Senior Josh Lehrer said email notifications kept him aware of the initiative throughout the year.

“It was probably the fastest and easiest way to spread the word with using the emails because it’s kind of hard to talk to the whole university unless you use the tools and resources they did,” Lehrer said. “I remember at least three or four occasions where I saw something about it, so it caught my attention.”

Freshman Mara Morley said she thinks USG will be able to continue the initiative next year.

“I definitely think that USG did get the ball rolling this year,” Morley said. “I think it was really good to at least get the conversation going for next year.”

Improving neighbor relations

At the beginning of the year, USG and the commuter center offered $20 taxi vouchers to students who live off-campus and encouraged the students to meet with neighbors and exchange contact information.

A “Tommie shuttle” also was proposed. The shuttle would drive through neighborhoods on weekends and provide a safe ride home to students. But USG Vice President Mike Orth said it would have been too much of a liability.

“USG initially pursued the transit shuttle, but after speaking with the administration, it was deemed to be an unacceptable liability for the university,” Orth said. “While working on various student initiatives, sometimes a certain idea is just not feasible.”

Junior Fiona Coulter said she understood the concern but she thinks the shuttle would have been a safe option for students.

“I understand that it might be a liability, but I also think that it’d be comfortable for students to know that they have a safe ride home and not feel as much pressure to ask Public Safety to come get them,” Coulter said. “It’d be safer than having students drive intoxicated or walking around drunk.”

But Orth said USG has made more progress with neighbors than ever before, in part from the neighborhood dinners. Off-campus students, faculty and community members got together at the dinners to discuss what St. Thomas could do to help the community more.

“This past year we’ve gone further than we ever have as a student government and working with neighbors,” Orth said. “We’ve had meetings and worked with the university relations office to kind of coordinate this initiative.”

Freshman Lesle Marshall-Mahlik said she has seen an improvement in neighbor relations during the past year.

“I think it’s definitely better. St. Thomas is in a neighborhood where’s there’s a lot of families, so we kind of have to respect them, and I think we’ve gotten better at it,” Marshall-Mahlik said.

Lehrer said he and his roommates took advantage of the opportunity to meet with neighbors.

“At our house, we actually set up a meeting through the campus with a couple of our neighbors and met with them, so that was great,” Lehrer said.

Improving transfer student experiences

Scharine said USG was able to offer an alternative to transfer students this year.

“One of the big things that we’ve changed is that transfer students [who] are coming in have the option to attend freshman orientation,” Scharine said. “It turned out really well.”

Allie Krug, a sophomore who spent her first year at Miami University in Ohio, said she appreciated the option and attended the orientation.

“The transfer orientation they put you through is really valuable,” Krug said. “They pair you up with a student and you get a tour.”

Scharine said he looks forward to developing new initiatives for next year while still keeping this year’s goals in mind.

“We definitely think we’re moving in the right direction with these initiatives. The three goals or three initiatives we’d like to achieve next year are going to be based on this year’s council,” Scharine said. “Our job is to relay student voice to the administration, and we did that quite successfully this year.”

Cynthia Johnson can be reached at john3175@stthomas.edu.