Smoke-free effort on college campuses gathers momentum

By April Corbin

Monday, Dec. 13, 2010 | 2 a.m.

A $450,000 campaign to make all Southern Nevada college campuses smoke-free by March 2012 is making progress and raising questions along the way. Questions such as: How? Why now? Or, if you are a smoker or staunch libertarian, perhaps the question may just be an exasperated: Really?

Some answers come easy. The money for the Tobacco Free UNLV Initiative comes from a $14.6 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Southern Nevada Health District as part of the federal stimulus package.

The money might seem like a lot, but the anti-smoking effort involves more than removing ashtrays and buying a few no-smoking signs to tack around campus. It involves helping students quit, including prescribed nicotine supplements at the Student Health Center, support groups, training health staff on tobacco issues and raising awareness.

The program’s director is Nancy York, a professor of nursing. Her small team includes a graduate assistant from the nursing program, a graphic designer and a website manager. Their survey of 4,100 students found that 73 percent think it’s important to enact a campuswide tobacco-free policy, 16 percent smoke cigarettes and 70 percent of those smokers attempted to quit in the past year.

“That’s the largest response to any student survey at UNLV,” York said. “People care about this issue.”

Graduate assistant Rhone D’Errico says he was surprised by how overwhelmingly positive initial feedback has been. Students have thanked the team and shared stories of having asthma or lung issues that can be triggered by secondhand smoke.

“We’ve had transfer students from other states come up to us and say they didn’t realize UNLV lacked a policy like this,” he said.

The American Lung Association reports that 254 U.S. colleges and universities have

100 percent tobacco-free policies. Meanwhile, the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation reports that 446 U.S. campuses are either tobacco-free or are implementing such a policy.

The process can take more than five years, York said. Not surprisingly, campuses in tobacco-growing states such as Kentucky and North Carolina face greater hurdles than those in nontobacco-growing states. Nevada overall seems in favor of nonsmoking, having passed four years ago the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act, which banned smoking in most public and indoor workplaces.

The UNLV initiative is an extension of that, York said.

Smoking is banned indoors at UNLV, as well as on balconies, but there are no rules on outdoor smoking. This creates problems near high-traffic areas such as the Student Union and Lied Library, and students have complained, D’Errico said.

York and D’Errico hope to rally these students through signatures and events into supporting their tobacco policy proposal. UNLV’s president and his advisory council have the final say on campus policy, and they know student support will speak louder than a government grant.

The tobacco-free policy proposal includes a ban on accepting money from the tobacco industry, which some may argue is unwise in harsh economic times. However, it’s not yet known whether any student organizations would be affected.

(Ironically, the Millennium Scholarship for Nevada high school graduates is mostly funded through a settlement between the state and the tobacco industry. That arrangement would not be affected by the tobacco-free policy.)

One thing York thinks will help UNLV meet its March 2012 goal is having Nevada State College implement the same policy first. The college, which opened in 2002 and has 3,000 students, has the strictest anti-tobacco policy among the state’s institutions of higher education. Smoking is banned indoors and within 100 feet of buildings. Expanding that range to the entire campus should not be difficult, said Spencer Stewart, associate vice president for college relations.

As for the other parts of the program, that’s even easier.

“We can start with a clean slate because we don’t have an athletics or auxiliary programs (that might receive funding from the tobacco industry), Stewart said. “We don’t have established places like UNLV’s Student Union. So we can strengthen our policies now, and then, as our institution grows, that tobacco-free culture will grow within it.”

York thinks Nevada State College will set the tone for UNLV to follow. Talks of the College of Southern Nevada partnering with the tobacco-free initiative are under way. CSN has more than 41,000 enrolled students.

The results of the Tobacco Free Initiative on all three Southern Nevada institutions may be difficult to measure, but when combined with the work of the Health District’s other partners — such as the Clark County School District, the Nevada Cancer Institute and the American Lung Association of Nevada — York and D’Errico hope the effect will be widespread. College-age individuals are often the target of tobacco advertisements.

As for naysayers who will argue the proposed policy is trampling on civil liberties, York and D’Errico say they are ready for open dialogue.

“I can understand that defensive feeling that smokers can get when they feel they’re being imposed on,” said D’Errico, a former smoker. “We are trying to make it clear that we aren’t trying to enforce personal changes on individuals, but instead we’re focused on having a healthy university environment and supporting those people who are looking to quit.”