Serving Your New Community, or SYNC, is an annual opportunity for incoming freshmen to connect with other students and community members through service projects in the Moscow area. For the five freshmen tasked with picking up cigarette litter on the University of Idaho campus Friday, they found more than the location of their fall semester classes — they found a problem.
By the time the group rebased at the Vandal Health Education room, they’d collected 20 small trash bags of cigarette litter — which came after facilities had already cleaned up campus for the start of the academic year.
“It was shocking,” said UI freshman, Kennadie Johnson. “I never even thought about cigarettes being allowed on campus. You’re not allowed to smoke in high school, so why would you expose us to it now?”
Last spring, the UI Tobacco Task Force recommended a campus-wide smoking ban be implemented beginning fall 2015 to curb cigarette-related litter, and tobacco-related health risks. The policy change was met with contention on campus, but according to Johnson and the rest of her SYNC group, a tobacco ban just makes sense.
Vandal Health Education Coordinator Emily Tuschhoff said the task force continued making strides toward a tobacco-free campus over the summer.
“We worked with people all over campus,” Tuschhoff said. “Facilities, Staff Affairs, Faculty Senate, Safety and Loss Committee, (ASUI), Sodexo, SRC … now our plan is to include even more partners implementing the tobacco-free initiative through the students. We have contact with Greek organizations and athletics, and we’re very involved with many different facets of the university.”
The task force has also collaborated extensively with the UI administration. While UI President Chuck Staben could not be reached for comment, Faculty Senate Chair Marty Ytreberg said he thinks Staben has adopted a pro-tobacco-free stance toward the policy.
According to Tuschhoff, there is still much work to be done before UI is ready to go tobacco-free. Much of that entails logistics — such as extensive community communication and education, which she said they hope to accomplish this year.
Thanks to a partnership with the Idaho North Central District Public Health District, the university has already received metal signage through a grant from Project Filter. The UI smoke-free initiative is also funded partially by the Centers for Disease Control and a regional outreach program with other universities, called the Fresh Air Campaign.
As of July 2014, nearly 1400 campuses across the U.S. have adopted smoke-free policies, according to Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights. Tuschhoff said implementing these policies on college campuses is important because while most smokers pick up the habit prior to the age of 18, the young adult, or college, age group is the second-most likely cohort to pick up smoking.
Johnson said that if she really wanted to smoke, she could just go off campus.
Students who would like to get involved in the UI Smoke-Free Initiative can contact Tuschhoff at the Vandal Health Education Resource Office. Vandal Health Education additionally offers resources to combat stress — one of students’ biggest reasons to smoke.
“Our ultimate goal is to emphasize the health and safety of everyone on campus — students, faculty, staff and visitors,” Tuschhoff said. “Besides that, it just makes our campus look more respectable.”