ROAR Fund fails, Smoking and Tobacco Ban passes

 When it was all said and done, 568 students participated in the student vote Monday and Tuesday. 

The 568 students who voted accounted for about 11 percent of the student body. According to Darren Fullerton, vice-president of student affairs, the campus is lucky to have 200 voters at most elections. The last voting topic to receive this large of a turnout was the recreation center fee.

The two major items on the ballot were the ROAR Fund and the smoking, vapor and tobacco campus ban. The ROAR Fund had been accompanied by plenty of noise, with a Facebook page against it and athletics marketing in favor of it. The fund was struck down by a vote of 298-267.

The vote on the tobacco and vapor ban wasn’t nearly as close, with 401 students voting in favor of the ban and only 159 siding against it. The ban will go into effect in the fall of 2015.

The final issue on the ballot was whether to approve the revisions to the Student Senate constitution, which passed with 83 percent of the vote.

The students elected to serve in an executive capacity next semester are Jake Messer, sophomore, psychology; Saif Farag, junior, biology, Brooklyn Lampe, sophomore, environmental health; and Raymond Dunaway, freshman, accounting, who ran a successful write-in campaign.

Messer will serve as the president of Senate, Farag as vice president, Lampe as secretary and Dunaway as treasurer for the 2014-15 academic year.