“I don’t want to take that right (to smoke) away from smokers.”
– Sen. Drew Baryenbruch

Despite objection from Student Association senators and the Norris Health Center, smoking will stay in two areas of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Union.

The Union Clean Air Act would have banned smoking entirely from the Union, including in the Gasthaus and 8th Note Coffeehouse.

The Gasthaus and 8th Note, known in part for their smoky atmospheres, will continue to allow students to light up, while the Union Recreation Center and second-floor lounge will now be smoke free.

The decision was made in the Sunday SA meeting, but it did not come without controversy and debate.

The act was supported fervently by graduate Sens. Robert Madison and David Granik before ultimately being voted down in the Senate 18-10.

Some senators felt that banning smoking altogether from the Union would infringe on students’ freedom to enjoy smoking.

“I don’t want to take that right away from smokers,” said Sen. Drew Baryenbruch, a non-smoker.

Others felt that the phrase “smokers’ rights” infringed too much on those of non-smokers.

“Just because I have the right to own a gun doesn’t give me the right to shoot it off,” Granik said.

The SA also approved the Student Stance on Smoking, which recognized that “people need a place somewhere on campus to … smoke.” But questions of how representative this was of the entire student body were raised.

Madison called it “hypocritical” that senators would defeat the Union Clean Air Act in part because it didn’t speak for all students and adopt a “student stance” that couldn’t possibly speak for everyone.

Granik said it was “a low point” in the Senate.

Most agreed that the 8th Note, which has closed doors, was not a threat to those who didn’t want to be exposed to secondhand smoke. There was some controversy as to whether or not smoking should remain in the Gasthaus, which has a smoking and non-smoking section without barricades between the two.

In the end, most of the senators felt that the Gasthaus was enclosed enough.

Sen. Kris Pluskat, also a non-smoker, said that banning smoking from the Gasthaus would “break with tradition.”

Also on the agenda was support of differential tuition for the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. The differential tuition would allow AUP students to forgo paying $525 a semester for laptops and give students access to desktop computers in the AUP studios.

The vote on SA support for a different tuition will be at the next meeting on Nov. 6, in the Union, room W191, at 6 p.m. All SA meetings are open to the public.

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