SCSU student vote backs tobacco-free plan

St. Cloud State University students approved a plan that could make their campus tobacco free by August 2012.

The issue passed with 63 percent approving and 37 percent voting against the plan.

The students voted Monday through Wednesday, and the results were announced today at a Student Government meeting. The approval of the tobacco-free campus plan essentially is a recommendation to President Earl H. Potter III, who has final say over whether to give the go-ahead to the plan.

The plan has two phases, with the first reducing to 17 the areas on campus where tobacco products can be used. That phase would begin this summer and would go until August 2012, when the campus would switch to being tobacco-free. Students also elected a new Student Government president and vice president.

They are Samantha Ivey, who was elected president, and Christopher Norton, who is the new vice president. They received 57 percent of the vote, with Dale Rystad and Ashli Gerdes receiving 35 percent. The number of votes cast amounted to about 6 percent of the student body.