The U. of I. student body has spoken, and it says it doesn’t want to inhale secondhand smoke anymore.
Last year students took the Illinois state law banning indoor public smoking a step further, supporting a referendum calling for a smoke-free campus.
The result: The campus will be smoke-free starting in November.
“It shows that students are becoming increasingly health conscious and are willing to put action behind their beliefs,” said Brock Gephardt, the president of the Student Senate.
Gephardt credited the “strong vision” of former senate president Hannah Ehrenberg and student senator Kennan Kassar for making the push for a smoke-free campus.
Gephardt said the petition to create a smoke-free campus garnered nearly 70 percent of the student vote.
“It was posed to the entire student body, so everyone had a chance to provide input,” he said.
The vote led to the formation of an ad hoc committee representing the entire campus, which forwarded the recommendation to Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise that the Urbana campus go smoke-free.
“I believe campus support was strong for this because most of the community believe it’s in the interest of the health of our students, faculty and staff,” Wise said. “Not only does smoking affect the health of the people who smoke – secondhand smoke impacts literally everyone on the campus.”
But it’s not as easy as just saying that smoking isn’t allowed on campus anymore.
“People think you can just put up a ‘no smoking’ sign, but it’s much more than that,” said Michele Guerra, the director of the U. of I. Wellness Center.
“There are still details of the policy that need to be defined and communicated clearly to the entire campus community,” she said. “We also need to make sure that we provide resources for smokers who wish to quit. And we want to make the process as gentle as possible for everyone on campus – both smokers and non-smokers.”
She said the process is being “ironed out” and that details of the smoke-free campus initiative are being finalized. Four subcommittees have been charged to work on varying aspects of the initiative – from compliance to cessation options – and are expected to release their findings well in advance of the fall deadline.
“There are just so many details, and new questions have kept coming up,” she said.
Guerra said leaders have tried to include representatives of all of the affected stakeholders, including campus groups, and city and business officials in Urbana and Champaign.
The smoke-free campus initiative will extend to public events as well.
“We want to give everyone, especially incoming students and employees, enough time to get ready for the changes,” said Robyn Deterding, the director of campus recreation. “We want everyone to be aware and we want this to be a campuswide effort. We’ve tried to include everyone in the process.”
One major component of the effort will be to give students and staff members who wish to quit smoking the tools they need. The campus plans to offer a variety of cessation options.
Students and employees can already take advantage of the Illinois Tobacco Quitline, which is accessible through the smoke-free campus website. The quitline is free, confidential and offers nicotine replacement therapy. In addition, McKinley Health Center offers cessation programs for students.
Deterding said studies have shown that reaching smokers during their college years is important because, once picked up, the addiction is difficult to kick.
“After age 25, most people don’t start smoking,” she said, “so it’s key that we reach them before then.”
Guerra said the smoke-free initiative also represents the university’s promise to parents to keep their children safe.
“We have a mandate to prepare students academically,” she said, “but we also have a mandate to help them develop in many different aspects of life, including health and career preparation.”
With a growing number of businesses that do not allow smoking during work hours and take smoking and other habits into account when they hire, quitting or not starting smoking could also be considered a career decision.
“We’re not trying to legislate behavior,” Guerra said. “We’re trying to be a campus that embraces health for everyone.”
Guerra said she doesn’t think leaders of the effort will encounter much resistance.
“Most people understand that secondhand smoke is detrimental to people’s health,” she said. “We expect that most smokers will be very willing to abstain from smoking on campus property out of respect for their fellow campus community members.”
The specific compliance strategy is still being determined, but it is expected that the approach will be educational and focus on building a smoke-free culture.
Gephardt said he thinks the vast majority of offenses will be self-policed and not call for any punitive sanctions.
“We think the students will respect the rules in place,” he said.
There are also hopes the initiative has an academic value, with students enrolled in the master’s of public health degree program being asked to help with the evaluation and feedback processes. In addition, many students are serving on the smoke-free planning subcommittees.
“It would be an added benefit if students can get some experience working on an actual policy like this,” Deterding said.
