It’s been a little over a year since the University of Idaho quit using tobacco, with no signs of falling off the wagon.
Alcohol and Other Programs Coordinator Brian Dulin and Director of Vandal Health Promotion Emily Tuscho both said they were pleased with the university’s progress over the year following the implementation of the tobacco-free policy, which went into effect July 2016.
“I think the first tobacco-free year overall went very well,” Dulin said. “We saw far fewer incidents of people smoking on campus. ere are still people who are smoking, so the university has now decided to enter an educational phase with the cessation classes.”
Both Tuscho and Dulin are certified as cessation educators, and will provide Freshstart Tobacco Cessation classes to help struggling students, graduates, faculty and staff members quit using tobacco. Classes take place every ursday at 1 p.m. in the Student Health Services building.
“Anybody (connected to UI) may come in any Thursday at 1 p.m. and get started on their journey,” Dulin said. “ They don’t even have to be ready to quit. We are here for people to come and use their resources — it’s designed to give them tools to be successful in quitting.”
Dulin said the university’s efforts to create a tobacco-free environment have not been completely effective, but the reduction in tobacco use on campus has been significant. However, he said there are still opportunities for improvement.
“We’ve seen smoking gravitate toward the outer parts of campus,” Dulin said. “Most people aren’t smoking on the core campus anymore. It’s been a good rest year, but there is certainly a lot more room to do outreach and educational e orts.”
Tuscho said overall, most students seem to support the tobacco-free rule, and there have only been a handful of complaints about the change.
“We implemented this policy fairly quickly last summer,” Tuscho said. “Al- though it was a er several years of build up, so I think a lot of the campus community was aware that this was coming. We’ve received very little pushback this rest year.” In terms of enforcement, Dulin said the university’s main deterrent to breaking the tobacco policy is educating students about the risks and effects of tobacco consumption. He said he believes education is the best route, and that there are no plans for more physical enforcement, such as tickets. “We’re hoping to achieve compliance through education and outreach,” Dulin said. “Currently there are no plans to shift into an enforcement model. at’s not the plan right now, but if there is trouble achieving voluntary compliance I’m sure there will be an ongoing discussion about what more we can do to achieve that compliance.” Dulin said the tobacco-free policy isn’t in place to implement punishment as much as an attempt to phase out tobacco from everyday culture.
“It’s not about punishing (students),”Dulin said. “It’s about making a culture change. I think ten years down the road we will have a culture where people will automatically recognize that this is a tobacco- free campus.”
Dulin said Student Health Services ad- ministers the National College Health As- sessment every two years, and according tothe assessment, both cigarette and chewing tobacco use is decreasing.
Dulin said UI administered a tobacco survey to nearly one thousand students in Oct. 2015. Within the previous 30 days of the survey, 13 percent reported smoking ciga- rettes, five percent reported using chewing tobacco and eight percent reported using some variation of an electronic cigarette.
“We are seeing use of vaporizers and e- cigarettes,” Dulin said. “Now that they are interchangeable with tobacco and marijuana, it’s an ongoing concern about people vaping. The health effects from it haven’t been conclusive, so we don’t know the full extent of how safe or unsafe it is.”
Tuscho said she had the community to thank for the support UI has received in its attempt to eradicate tobacco use on campus.
“We’ve received a lot of praise and feed- back from people regarding the stance we’ve taken,” Tuscho said. “People who have been trying to quit for a long time have come forward to say our policy has really helped in their efforts to quit.”
Andrew Ward can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @WardOfTheWorlds