Clouds of smoke at entrances to residence halls and academic buildings created a hazy start to Thursday’s Chancellor’s Roundtable.

Senior Jessica Lahti hosts campus tours and she said the concentration of smokers in the breezeway that connects Schofield Hall and Davies Center gave tour groups the impression that many students at UW-Eau Claire smoke.

“It wasn’t a very positive assumption,” she said.

Chancellor Donald Mash sympathized with smokers, who gather in warm and comfortable areas, like the breezeway.

“If I were to smoke outside the building, that’s where I would smoke,” he said. “They have their own views on being banished out into the cold.”

Director of Facilities Planning Stephen Horner was the lone admitted smoker in the room after Mash asked for a hand count.

Horner said he believed enforcement is secondary to creating a consistent policy for smoking on campus. He said if the university set guidelines on where to smoke, he would follow them.

The second topic of discussion was the recent approval of $300,000 in student money earmarked for installing artificial turf at Carson Park.

“This was a sudden issue -one we had to move on,” Student Senate President Adrian Klenz said.

Last year, the condition of the field was such a hot issue that a committee was formed to investigate the possibility of a football stadium on campus.

“The dollars involved in doing that were huge,” Mash said.

When the city proposed artificial turf for Carson Park, Mash said that option was much cheaper than a stadium.

If the idea of a stadium was realized, it would cost each student $10.50 a year in segregated fees. Instead, installing turf will cost each student $2.25 a year for the next 10 years.

An additional $500,000 is still needed to pay for turf at Carson Park by May 1.

Vice Chancellor Andy Soll said three other sponsors are “firm” on their pledge to donate funds.

The total amount needed for the project is $800,000 and for each $100,000 given to the project, the donor secures a space on the scoreboard for advertising.

About 25 students showed up to the roundtable, though the crowd depleted to six students when the topic of the Campus Plan came up.

Soll and Horner introduced the Campus Plan – a preliminary proposal for future campus construction and renovation.

In the past, Soll said the university submitted project proposals to the UW System, but this is the first comprehensive plan for Eau Claire.

While the System faces a $250 million reduction in state funding, Soll said the economy would benefit from the approval of public construction projects.

Soll said contractors in the private sector need work and have been known to offer 10 to 15 percent below the projected cost for public building projects.

“There will be a strong building program during these times of fiscal uncertainty,” he said.

One idea outlined by the plan suggested placing similar majors and related programs into closer proximity to one another on campus.

“We have some academic programs that are splintered,” Soll said.

For example, Soll said the special education department, located in the Human Science and Services building, should be housed in the same building as the School of Education, currently housed in the Campus School.

Some of the highlights of the plan include the demolition of Kjer Theatre and the Campus School, a new academic building between Zorn Arena and Schneider Hall and additions to Haas Fine Arts Center, Phillips and Schneider halls and Davies Center.

The draft of the plan shown at the roundtable was not definite and Soll said it represented the needs of every department with no compromises.

“This doesn’t represent any new decisions,” Soll said. “We have to show how all the dominos will fall.”