Texas State smokers took to the Fighting Stallions with cigarettes in hand yesterday to protest the tobacco-free policy, hoping to spark interest on an issue they feel is unfair. Approximately 25 students lit up in protest while many others gathered to watch the proceedings. The tobacco-free policy, which went into effect last August, prohibits smoking and the use of all tobacco products on all university property, including athletic and recreational fields, outdoor stadiums and grandstands, parking garages and parking lots, Sewell Park, University Camp and Freeman Ranch.

Ted Calvin, mass communication freshman, led the protest. Calvin said he and others feel Texas State should be more accommodating to students who smoke. Calvin and the other protesters said they were not afraid of being punished by authorities for smoking on campus. The protesters chose to exercise their First Amendment rights and demonstrate their objection to the tobacco-free policy at the Fighting Stallions because it is a campus expression area. The area around the statue is a designated place on campus where anyone may express ideas and opinions without censorship.
The protesters were vocal about their opinions regarding the tobacco ban. “I think it is crap,” said Tiffany Burr, psychology sophomore. “We’re grown. I don’t think this protest will do anything, though.” Sarah Hebson, public relations junior, was not supportive of the protest, and yelled her thoughts on the matter at the protesters. “When I saw them smoking, I thought it was gross,” Hebson said. “(They are) going to die at a young age. I just don’t like tobacco use.”

The original protest formed after Calvin posted on the “Texas State Class of 2015” Facebook page urging students to meet at the stallions to smoke their cigarettes as part of a peaceful protest. The post received 33 “likes” and more than 260 comments. Calvin said he and fellow smokers will most likely protest at the same time and place this Thursday, and will have a petition for students to sign. The group hopes to receive enough signatures for university administration to create designated smoking areas on campus.

Despite polls showing overwhelming public support and endorsements from celebrities such as Lance Armstrong, efforts to establish a statewide workplace smoking ban have fallen flat in recent sessions of the Texas Legislature. But one state agency is finding that the billions of dollars at its disposal may help it get comprehensive tobacco-free policies established — most notably, at university campuses. University administrators statewide are considering no-tobacco policies as a result of new rules established by the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas.

In January, the institute’s oversight committee adopted a policy that requires recipients of its grants to prohibit tobacco use in buildings and structures where the research activities being financed are occurring, as well as in outdoor areas adjacent to those buildings. Grant recipients must also provide smoking cessation services.

For schools that pride themselves on their research, such as the University of Texas at Austin — which has received about $30 million from the institute and hopes for $88 million more — there is a clear financial incentive to ban smoking.

“If folks have to go a little bit farther, if they have to think about having a cigarette a little bit more, we are encouraging them to smoke less — which results in positive benefits — or to quit altogether,” said Bill Gimson, executive director of the institute.

The new rule is not a response to the Legislature’s inaction but is simply consistent with the institute’s mandate to prevent cancer in Texas, Gimson said.

A handful of institutions, including UT Arlington and UT Brownsville, have adopted campuswide tobacco bans on their own. At UT Arlington, which has received nearly $2.3 million in cancer research grants, the policy was phased in over two years.

Still a choice

The cancer research institute was established in 2007 by a constitutional amendment. The state was authorized to issue $3 billion in bonds over 10 years to finance cancer research and prevention efforts. Nearly $600 million in grants have been issued, primarily to academic institutions.

Institutions receiving grants must be in compliance by Aug. 31 or their current financing could be in jeopardy. For new grant proposals, the policy is in effect starting March 1.

Around the state, institutions are scrambling to revisit their tobacco policies.

Adrienne Howarth-Moore, the director of human resource services at UT, said that narrowing down the buildings in which research might occur — or revisiting the issue each semester as locations change — could prove challenging.

“We have researchers that do their day-to-day investigations in a lab, but then they go and do their analysis and review in an office,” she said. “And they might have graduate research assistants who are doing their work in the library.”

The existing policy prohibits smoking in all buildings, as well as within 20 feet of doors and windows. Howarth-Moore said expanding the capacity of the university’s cessation services, as well as producing additional signage and educational materials, would probably have an economic impact, though she said the amount is unknown.

In early 2011, UT’s student government called for a campuswide tobacco ban. Bill Powers, the university’s president, said it would infringe on personal freedom.

Gimson shrugged off the notion of overstepping, saying that universities still have choices.

“We came up with a reasonable policy,” he said. “If folks want to expand that, more power to them.”

While Gimson said the rule change is intended to be a carrot and not a stick, it is a large one that many universities cannot afford to ignore.

“I don’t know what we want to call it,” said Taylor Eighmy, the vice president for research at Texas Tech University, which has received nearly $1 million in grants. “It’s not legislation, it’s not a mandate, it’s not a federal or state requirement.

“But this suggested language, we intend to comply with it.”

And with research financing at stake, the president of UT is coming around. Powers “supports revisiting these rules in light of the recent decision” by the institute, said Gary Susswein, a university spokesman.

Although the prospect of having to leave campus to have a cigarette is certain to create some anger on college campuses, a number of tobacco users welcome the change.

“It would definitely be inconvenient, but I am all for a smoke-free campus,” said Kirk Van Sickle, a junior who started smoking when he was 18. “On a personal note, it would probably help me quit. It would be good for me.”

A campuswide ban is not a sure thing. As deadlines approach, UT administrators say such a policy remains one of many options under consideration.

Jason Cook, a spokesman for Texas A&M University in College Station, which has received more than $3.4 million in grants, said the issue would be complicated on a campus with more than 500 buildings and multiple state agencies on more than 5,000 acres.

“Given the issue of size and scope and the multiple organizations on our campus, we intend to have a very engaged discussion,” he said. The first step would probably be to establish boundaries around buildings where institute-financed research occurs, he said.

Gimson said he sees progress toward anti-tobacco policies at universities.

“I think we’re ahead of the wave,” he said, “but certainly there is a wave.”

Smoking a cigarette in the parking lot at Daytona State College, Jayme Vickers said he thinks college students are under enough stress and smoking provides relief. The idea of going to a smoke and tobacco-free campus, a proposal under consideration not only at Daytona State, but Stetson University in DeLand, has Vickers, 31, worried students will be under “more anxiety.” “College is very stressful,” said Vickers, a third-year audio engineering major, who says students already get anxious trying to find a parking spot on campus.

If they can’t smoke, he worries people will “lash out” in class.

He’d rather see designated smoking zones as an alternative.

But other students and college employees counter that the secondhand smoke of others is negatively impacting their health.

Daytona State College is circulating a proposal to prohibit “smoking and tobacco use” in all areas of its six campuses in Volusia and Flagler counties. Input is being gathered from staff, faculty and students.

The college’s Faculty Senate, whose leaders say they are in support of a tobacco-free policy, will vote on the proposal March 5. The policy will also need approval by the college’s board of trustees.

The time line could be a phase-in plan taking six to 18 months to implement, college administrators said. The final proposal may also include designated smoking areas. Stetson University is also looking at a tobacco-free proposal, with includes prohibiting cigarettes, chewing tobacco and other products with nicotine on university property. The proposal will be presented to the Stetson Faculty Senate on Feb. 27 and then reviewed by other groups and university administration.

Smoke-free and tobacco-free policies are a national trend in recent years. More than 640 colleges and universities nationally have policies, including 10 at Florida colleges and universities, such as the University of Florida, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, a California-based group. The University of Central Florida is going smoke-free this fall on the main campus in Orlando, officials said.

Bethune-Cookman University has historically been a smoke-free campus, but the university’s health council is looking at whether to change the policy to prohibit all tobacco products, including chewing tobacco.

“When students are away from home for the first time and starting to make their own decisions, it’s important we not only provide an environment that is informative about health behavior, but that we model good health behaviors,” said Alma Dixon, Bethune-Cookman’s executive director of health equity.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has decided to allow smoking except within 25 feet of building entrances.

“We just feel education (and smoke cessation programs) is probably better rather than trying to enforce a policy of no smoking on the property,” said Irene McReynolds, Embry-Riddle vice president of human resources.

Bethune-Cookman and other area colleges also have smoking cessation programs.

In 2005, the American College Health Association urged all colleges and universities to implement policies banning tobacco use.

The 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported about 24.8 percent of full-time college students smoked cigarettes 30 days prior to the survey.

Nancy Homan, Daytona State fitness and aquatics center coordinator, who is the principal investigator on a grant studying a smoke-free campus, said whatever Daytona State College decides will be based on input from all the students, faculty and staff.

Currently, the college allows smoking except in buildings, hallway, balconies and other areas were signs are posted.

About 70 percent of about 600 Daytona State students and employees surveyed in March supported a tobacco-free policy though about 80 percent also said they would support designated smoking areas.

“It’s not about forcing individuals to change their lifestyle and behavior — it is to protect the greater campus community and college interest by providing a safe, clean environment,” Homan said.

Homan added that as “an institution of higher learning, we feel it is our task to help our students prepare for those professions where they won’t be able to smoke while they are at work.”

Faculty Senate president Barry Gibson, who is assistant chairman of the math department, said faculty seems “supportive of the concept.” He personally doesn’t like to “limit people, but I’ll support whatever is done.”

Kendra Hatton, 20, a Daytona State sophomore, “loves” the idea of a smoke-free campus.

“Everywhere you turn there is a lot of smoke,” said Hatton, of Daytona Beach. “It’s getting in my lungs and killing me and I’m out of breath.”

But her friend, Theo Plowden, 19, of Orlando, a freshman on the Daytona State basketball team, said because no smoking is allowed inside the buildings, “it doesn’t bother me at all.”

Danielle Johnson, 19, of Edgewater, who is a smoker and in her second year at Daytona State, said the proposed policy “doesn’t matter to me” because she goes to class and then to her car and doesn’t hang around. But she thinks students “wouldn’t pay attention to it” and would still find ways to smoke on campus.

Zach Morris, 20, of Port Orange, a sophomore at Daytona State, who doesn’t smoke, thinks a tobacco-free policy “violates people’s rights.”

At Stetson University, students can’t smoke within 50 feet of building entrances, doors and vents. A tobacco-free proposal has gone through the Student Government Association, but failed.

Smoking zones have received more support but a bill on that also ultimately failed. “It’s really a touchy subject,” said Aimee Bushway, 21, a Stetson senior and president of the Stetson Student Government Association. “A lot of students feel it imposes on their rights as a person.”

Lynn Stadelman, Stetson’s director of wellness and recreation, who serves on the Wellness Values Council proposing the change, said the council’s concern is for the “health and well-being of everybody on campus.”

“We don’t want people who are choosing not to smoke to be affected by other people who choose to smoke,” Stadelman said.

The Stetson Faculty Senate will vote on a tobacco-free campus proposal on Feb. 27. Faculty Senate president Mitchell Reddish is waiting to see the proposal before taking a position.

For anti-smoking advocates at the University of Texas, a breath of fresh air could be on the way. UT administrators announced Thursday they are considering making the entire campus tobacco-free. The university already bans smoking in dorms, classrooms and other indoor areas. A new policy could expand the ban to include sidewalks and parking garages. Officials are considering the change after a major grant donor, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, decided earlier this month that all grant recipients would be required to maintain tobacco-free campuses.

UT has received about $30 million from the institute and hopes for an additional $88 million in research funding, Adrienne Howarth-Moore , UT’s director of human resource services, said Thursday. To receive additional institute funds, UT must be tobacco-free by March 1.

“As a premier research institution, UT considers cancer research to be vital to our core mission and our goal to help save lives and enhance public health,” the university said in an email Thursday afternoon. In the email, which was attributed to Pat Clubb, vice president for university operations, and Juan Sanchez, vice president for research, officials said UT is “currently working to evaluate and adapt its current ‘No Smoking’ policy, which will ultimately preserve tens of millions of dollars in funding for cancer research.”

UT spokesman Gary Susswein said talks among faculty, administrators and students about the change could begin as early as today.

Matt Haviland, a junior at UT and the president of Texas Public Health, an undergraduate advocacy organization, said he has been working for nearly a year with administrators, pushing for a tougher tobacco-free policy. Haviland said he’s pleased with Thursday’s announcement but is surprised that it happened so quickly.

“I’m happy this actually happened within my time here at the university. I expected it to take several years,” said Haviland, 20. “It was coming one way or another, but the fact that it happened sooner is better. I would have liked for it to come … without outside influence. But in the end, it’s definitely good for our campus.”

Howarth-Moore said any enforcement strategy will center on education, not wrist-slapping. That could include posting signs that designate tobacco-free zones and cultivating a culture in which students and faculty will encourage their peers to abide by the rules, she said.

She did not foresee any situation where violators would incur punishments such as fines. UT already offers free smoking-cessation classes and other initiatives to help members of the university community quit.

“We’re looking at a cooperative environment for compliance,” she said.

Last spring, university President William Powers Jr. said he opposed a campuswide ban on smoking, saying a complete ban would overstep the university’s limits, according to reports in the Daily Texan, the school’s newspaper.

Howarth-Moore said the university does not want to alienate students who are also smokers if a tobacco-free policy is implemented.

“We do value diverse thoughts,” she said. “And for those who have chosen to not be tobacco-free, we want to make sure they still feel valued in the community.”

While some individuals are continuing to create New Year’s resolutions, Marshall University’s Student Health Program is in an effort to make smoking cessation an option for campus. According to the West Virginia Division of Tobacco Prevention’s website, tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death in the United States. The website also states that smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causing many diseases and affecting overall health.

The Student Health program will be offering smoking cessation classes beginning in February. The classes will be available to students by contacting Student Health offices.
Amy Saunders, coordinator of the Student Health Education Program, said after doing research, the majority of data proves over the past three years, students do want a smoke-free campus.
“We continue to do research on this topic,” Saunders said. “For example, on Assessment Day in April we will conduct online surveys and look closely at those results. Our results in the past have indicated the majority of students are tobacco-free on campus,”
The Student Health Education Program has also formed a committee to look at smoke-free campuses and tobacco prevention. The committee is currently working with not only Marshall’s campus, but the Tri-State region as well. The program is interested in helping Huntington High School receive smoke detectors for their restrooms to help decrease smoking on school grounds.
Along with their work in this area, the committee is also planning to attend the Tobacco Free Day at the Capitol on Friday, Feb. 24.
A tobacco quit-line is also available to those who seek help to stop smoking. The West Virginia Tobacco Quitline was established in July 2000 and since then has enrolled more than 50,600 individuals. Those interested in participating in individual phone coaching to cease tobacco use can call 1-800-QUIT-NOW. Participants will also receive free nicotine replacement therapy, which includes patches and gum.
Teresa Mills, with the Cabell-Huntington Health Department, said the quit-line is free to individuals 18-34 years of age, and other ages depending on insurances.
“This specific population covers Marshall students and offers them an opportunity to receive free and easy access to help,” Mills said.
Smoking is prohibited in any Marshall building, including dormitories. In order to light a cigarette, an individual must be within at least 10 feet away from a building on campus.

When students return to the University of Maine at Farmington campus this week, they’ll find that a new tobacco-free policy aimed at promoting health and wellness began this month. “UMF is committed to promoting a healthy environment for our students, faculty, staff and community,” UMF President Theodora J. Kalikow said. “This new policy is a positive step in helping to reduce health risks and encouraging healthy lifestyle choices.”

UMF’s new policy is based on the international consensus of medical authorities that smoking, secondhand smoke and tertiary residue from smoking are harmful to an individual’s health. Tertiary tobacco smoke residue clings to the clothing of smokers.

The tobacco-free policy covers all tobacco products, including but not limited to cigarettes, cigars, snuff, chewing tobacco and non-FDA approved nicotine delivery devices, such as e-cigarettes. It applies to the entire campus, including athletic fields and parking lots.

This initiative was born of the committed work of the UMF Tobacco Task Force, a group of faculty, staff and students who joined forces in 2005 to help limit the campus community’s exposure to secondhand smoke. They began working in earnest on the development of a smoke-free policy for the campus in 2007.

Prior to that, UMF smoking policies complied with all Maine laws prohibiting smoking in university buildings and in outside areas of the campus where nonsmokers might be exposed to smoke. A smoke-free corridor was created on the UMF campus in 2002, in addition to smoke-free areas, including handicapped entrances and UMF-owned vehicles.

To support the UMF community’s transition to the new tobacco-free environment, the university is making smoking-cessation guidance available through the UMF Health Center. For additional assistance, UMF is making connections available to resources such as the Healthy Community Coalition, Healthy Maine Partnerships (Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention), Partnerships for a Tobacco-Free Maine and the Maine Tobacco Free College Network.

New signs have been posted in all campus buildings to remind employees, students and visitors of their responsibility to maintain a tobacco-free environment.

The University of Maine in Orono initiated a similar tobacco-free policy in 2011.

Student leaders Krista Paul and Megan Kiehl have started work on a project they hope will turn UW-Whitewater into a smoke-free campus. After spending the last couple of years researching the effects of smoking on students and the success of other campuses which have gone smoke-free, they said they are ready to take the next step, asking the opinion of the students.
Paul said a survey will be released to guage student interest on the topic in upcoming weeks, allowing students to share which direction they would like to see UW-Whitewater take.

According to the group, their main goal is not to infringe on anyone’s rights, but rather to make campus a healthier place for everyone and gauge the interest of the student body.
Paul and Kiehl said they have taken special training on how to educate college students about the effects of smoking and secondhand smoke. They said the effects of secondhand smoke are the same as the effects of smoking, a major concern being secondhand smoke could aggravate asthma symptoms.
If Whitewater moves forward with the decision to become smoke free it would join two other UW System schools: UW-Stout and UW-Baraboo/Sauk County.
If the policy goes forth, the group said they hope people will be healthier on campus.
However, Paul and Kiehl said they don’t want to cause problems in the community by forcing smokers to cross into community members’ lawns to smoke and having designated spots on campus for smokers is a reality.
One problem they said they see with the rule already in place is if smokers need to be 25 feet from the doors of the UC, they end up next to the playground exposing children secondhand smoke.
According to Paul, the group is already working on providing help to smokers who want to quit with cessation services.

Smoke-free air policies on college campuses may reduce students’ smoking rates, a recent study found. Researchers at Indiana University found that smoking was substantially reduced there in the two years after the campus instituted a policy that banned smoking on campus, including outdoor areas. Colleges in the Chattanooga area have policies that vary in the extent to which they allow smoking in outside areas on campus.

The University of Indiana study shows the smoking rate decreased and smokers smoked less from 2007 to 2009 despite the fact that the policy was minimally enforced, said Dong-Chul Seo, one of the study’s authors.

In comparison, the study found that the smoking rates and the number of cigarettes smoked increased during the same time period at Purdue University, where smoking was allowed at least 30 feet from campus facilities.

According to statistics cited in the Indiana study, nationally in 2009 about 22 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds smoked cigarettes. The smoking rate among college students peaked in 1999 and declined throughout the next decade.

Because students at Indiana who continued to smoke were not penalized, “this is a surprising result,” Seo said. However, the findings might be explained by the sharp increase in students’ awareness of the policy and the university’s publicity of the anti-smoking message on a campus bus, he said.

Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., has a policy like that of Indiana’s, banning smoking everywhere on campus, including in all outside spaces, said Vice President of Administration Walt Mauldin.

The campus has such a policy because smoking can be detrimental to people’s health, Mauldin said. He said that people try to adhere to the policy but may smoke elsewhere.

About five years ago, the college — affiliated with the Church of God — started putting up signs on athletic fields notifying people of the policy, Mauldin said. However, he said the policy has probably been in existence since the school was founded in 1918.

“It’s been a tradition here,” Mauldin said. “Our denomination supports that view.”

Covenant College, another Christian school, prohibits students from possessing or using tobacco on campus, according to its student handbook. In many circumstances, students are also prohibited from possessing or using tobacco products off campus as well.

Other schools in the area ban smoking inside but do not completely ban smoking outside.

Last month, the University of Tennessee system issued a new system-wide policy that bans smoking within 25 feet of doorways, windows and ventilation systems outside. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga already had a similar policy in place.

The new system-wide policy was designed to implement overarching guidelines and to comply with state laws, UT system spokeswoman Gina Stafford said.

UTC junior Rachel Stimson said she supports the policy because she doesn’t want to smell cigarettes at entryways to buildings.

“Overall, it’s a good thing,” she said.

While she thinks it’s hard for the school to prevent students from smoking off campus, “they can enforce anything they want to enforce” on campus.

Chattanooga State Community College’s policy, which was implemented in 2007, bans smoking within 50 feet of buildings, said Chattanooga State spokesman Jeff Olingy.

The policy is designed not to segregate smokers but to ensure that those who don’t smoke are not negative impacted by fumes, Olingy said.

“We’re not here to tell people not to smoke,” Olingy said.

The school publicizes its policy in its student handbook and on signs on buildings, but students said the signs are not respected by all smokers.

“It’s kind of like half and half,” Chattanooga State freshman Chelsea Anderson said about the signs. “It all depends on the person.”

Allison Holmes, who attended Chattanooga State when the school put up no-smoking signs, said that people at the time would grab a tape measure to make sure they could still smoke without getting into trouble.

Holmes, who recently graduated from UTC, said she doesn’t think smoking bans work.

“It’s a silly idea,” she said.

More Drewids than ever may be blowing smoke. Though more college students than ever smoke, only a handful of Drew students list themselves as smokers. According to an Aug. 8 ABC News article, a Harvard School of Public Health survey of 14,000 students nationwide found one third of students to be current tobacco users. According to the survey, the number of cigarette smokers increased from 22 percent in 1993 to 28 percent in 1997—a 6 percent increase—and that percentage is still rising.

Only seven out of 420 first-year Drew students—about 1.6 percent—self-identified as smokers, however, according to a survey of the first-year housing applications for the class of 2015.

Four out of the 32 first-year transfer students at Drew—12.5 percent—listed themselves as smokers.

Though the percentage is higher, it is still low as compared to the national average. Undergraduate Housing Coordinator Bob Meade, who matches students every year based on whether they smoke, explained that there is an unwillingness to call oneself a “smoker.”

Several Drew students guessed the number of cigarette smokers on campus was significantly higher.

“I think half of the students here smoke and half don’t,” Michael Tyler-Smith (’15), who identifies himself as a non-smoker, said.

Zeezee Blair (‘15) agreed, estimating that 40 to 50 percent of Drew students are smokers. She said that a smoker is “someone who has at least one cigarette a day.”

She said that “more [students] than I expected smoke.”

Alexa Morrissey (’14) guessed that “at least half” of students smoke cigarettes at Drew.

She said that she sees many students out with their friends smoking during weekends, and added that a lot of students may not be habitual smokers, but social smokers.

Carolina Caicedo (’15) placed her guess a bit lower, at 30 percent. “[There are] enough for me to notice that people are smoking,” she said.

She explained that she did not include social smokers in her guess. “Smokers do it as a habit in their everyday life,” she said. According to the ABC News article, researchers attribute the rise in smoking to successful marketing campaigns that pushed smoking as “trendy.” Many Drew students disagreed and listed different reasons for smoking. Tommy Saxton (’13) explained that his primary trigger for starting to smoke as a 10-year-old was stress from his childhood.

He said, however, that he didn’t consider himself a smoker until the age of 16—when he started funding his own cigarettes.

“People told me it would relax me,” he said. “It helped occupy my time. Now it’s more of a habit.”

Saxton also cited social reasons for smoking. “It’s probably the biggest reason I have the majority of my friends,” he said.

According to Saxton, the media did not influence his smoking habits in any way.

Blair, who smokes about one and a half packs per week, said that she started smoking after living in the Middle East at 16 years old because it was such a common habit there.

She said that everyone around her smoked and her father smokes as well. She also cited the anxiety relief that comes from smoking as a reason for taking up cigarettes. When asked if she self-identified as a smoker on her freshman housing application, she said, “no, because I thought I was going to quit.”

According to Blair, after arriving at Drew and finding other smokers, she decided not to quit.

Tyler-Smith said he thinks students take up smoking for social reasons and stress relief as well.

He also described smokers as having the ability to take “quick, stress-relieving breaks” throughout the day.