The Student Government Association discussed several issues including the possibility of students voting to implement a tobacco-free campus policy and student dress code during Wednesday night’s Town Hall meeting in Jennett Hall.

SGA Vice President Derika Powers voiced concerns pertaining to the excess of smoking by the academic halls.

“Currently there is a policy that restricts smoking within twenty feet of academic buildings but it is not enforced, seeing as though the cigarette ash urns are positioned closer than twenty feet,” she said.

Powers proposed making the Pedestrian Mall the designated smoking area or converting VSU to a tobacco-free campus.

The vote to solve the issue was split also evenly.

Powers then went on to propose that a student dress standard be enforced.

“By no means are we trying to enforce a Catholic-school-strict dress code but some regulation would be beneficial,” she said. “Dressing for success is something we should consider.”

SGA Senator Amber Worthy expanded on the subject by explaining that appropriate presentation is important in the learning environment.

“You should dress like you want to be held as a person capable of obtaining a job position or worthy of a professor’s recommendation,” she said.

Powers said the level of enforcement for the dress code would be at each professor’s discretion.

When asked how this policy would benefit students if it is only enforced by teacher discretion, SGA President Graham Davis said he believes the dress code would benefit students personally and for the image of the university as a whole.

“If the procedure works well on the inside of the classroom, we could possibly think about expanding the policy to outside of class,” Powers said. “This would be a baby step process.”

Graham and Powers agree that the dress code policy will primarily target inappropriate dress. This will require further specification if the proposed policy is put to a vote.

Other topics of discussion involved the dining hall hours and SGA improvements.

“I would like to see something twenty four hours or at least late night hours so that incoming freshman will have the opportunity to have meals late in the day without having to spend cash or Blazer Bucks,” said Worthy.

SGA improving at its meetings and with promoting the organization was also brought up.

An improvement SGA members would like to see, however, is to get students more engaged

According to Powers, it seems students lack an interest in their student government.

“I sent an e-mail out to 13,000 students alerting the student body about the meeting, and here we are again with less than twenty people showing up,” said Powers. “We need more involvement from the students.”