Kent State moves toward smoke and tobacco-free campus

 

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It’s hard to trek across campus without spotting a smoker taking a break outside a dorm or academic building, but it may not be that way for much longer.

The Ohio Board of Regents issued a recommendation in July 2012 suggesting all of Ohio’s public universities and colleges ban the use of tobacco products on their campus, and Kent State took it with stride.

Kent State has begun to move further in the direction of a smoke and tobacco-free campus following a recommendation by the Tobacco Free Campus Advisory Committee, which formed in the fall of 2012, after a year-long study of both the campus and its inhabitants.

The 20-person committee, which consists of Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Greg Jarvie and Vice President of Human Resources Willis Walker as co-chairs as well as other faculty, staff and students, studied Kent State’s campus for a year through surveys and other tactics.

The survey was distributed last fall through SurveyMonkey, and its results consisted of a mixed response from 8,300 Kent State students and faculty across all 8 campuses. According to the report, 79 percent do not use tobacco products. Additionally, 57 percent think Kent State should enforce a tobacco-free campus while the remaining 43 percent did not believe the campus should.

With results like this and other research, the committee made the decision to send the president’s cabinet the recommendation of banning tobacco products on campus. President Lestor Lefton and the administration will then make their recommendation to the board of trustees who will make the final decision.

If the ban is passed, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Founation, Kent State will join 1,178 other smoke-free campuses in the United States, ten of which are in Ohio. This includes Central State University, Christian Cedarville University, Cleveland State University, Dwight Schar School of Nursing, Ashland University, Hocking College, Malone College, Miami University, Mount Carmel School of Nursing and Mount Vernon Nazarene University.

Cleveland State made their transition into a smoke-free campus this fall following a similar process to what Kent is doing now as the result of the Ohio Board of Regents recommendation.

“The previous policy prohibited smoking in buildings and specific areas,” Cleveland State’s website says. “The tobacco free campus policy promotes a respectful and healthy environment by eliminating any form of tobacco use anywhere on campus. The previous policy prohibition of smoking within 20 feet of any CSU facility entrance remains effective.”

Kent State’s campus also has a current policy of not allowing smokers within 20 feet of any campus building although many believe the fact that people don’t follow this rule already will make it difficult for the campus to enforce a full-on ban.

“People don’t smoke 20 feet away from buildings, you know?” Brenda Riepenhoff, a senior electronic media production major says. “[If there’s a] ‘no smoking in this area’ sign, people still smoke there. I think [whether or not people will abide by the ban] just depends if they actually enforce it and how they enforce it.”

Cleveland State and Kent State both have cessation services to aid students and faculty in quitting smoking.

Eileen Guttman, a supervisor in the Health and Wellness Services of Cleveland State, says that the campus has always offered one-on-one appointments to aid in smoking cessation and continue to promote outside resource that can aid students in quitting, but they have also been actively publicizing it more due to the recent smoking ban being passed.

While the response to these one-on-one appointments have been steady and shown no noticeable increases since the ban became effective, Guttman says it is too soon to say especially with a new group on campus.

“There is a smoking cessation group that is run through CSU’s Counseling Center, which is a new group,” she said. “[the Health and Wellness Services]’ response has been steady, but I think it’s too soon to say. Counseling has obviously noticed an increase in students participating as it is a new group.”

Cleveland State will also be participating in the annual Great American Smokeout presented by the American Cancer Society, which is exceptionally important this year due to their recent policy change. The event will be held Nov. 14 to promote the importance of not smoking by challenging attendees to not smoke for one 24-hour period with hopes of them stopping for good.

“I definitely see there are kinds of health benefits to the smoking ban, and I see why it’s being pushed forward,” Kayla Depew, a sophomore community health education major, said in reference to a potential smoking ban on campus.

Depew also said she sees why the campus would want to be smoke-free but pointed out that with so many residents, it may be difficult to enforce.

“There is definitely something about smoking bettering culture socially and it’s very important to college students to have a social element of the public, she said. “As a place where people live, I think it’s incredibly hard to make it a smoke-free campus and still a comfortable place for students.”

Even though the ban would potentially take away a social opportunity, it would also be promoting not smoking at all, which may cause a dip in the economy.

“I don’t agree with a campus-wide smoking ban because we go to a public university and smoking is legal,” Lindsey Speyer, a senior sociology major says. “Cigarettes are something the government make a lot of money on tax wise”

According to the American Cancer Society, the average person spends $6.36 per pack of cigarettes. The Center for Disease Control says 43.8 million people, or 19 percent of all adults smoke. Of that, 18.9 percent are between the age of 18 and 24, the most common age for a person to attend college.

In addition to Kent State, Ohio State University is also moving in the direction of becoming tobacco-free. Their campus has been smoke free and recently announced it will become tobacco-free as well so starting in January 2014.

Their policy describes tobacco-free as “as all tobacco-derived or containing products, including and not limited to, cigarettes (e.g., clove, bidis, kreteks), electronic cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos, hookah smoked products, pipes, and oral tobacco (e.g., spit and spitless, smokeless, chew, snuff) and nasal tobacco (e.g. snus)” as well as any product that is intended to mimic a tobacco product.

Although the Tobacco Free Campus Advisory Committee did propose a recommendation in favor of a smoking ban on Kent State’s campus, it is just an idea up for further discussion, and no official decision will be made at this point.