At Wednesday’s ASUO Senate meeting, President Rousseau announced that the ASUO is moving forward with a smoke-free campus policy.
The Executive received an $800,000 grant to be spent over a number of years from PacificSource Health Plans as part of their Healthy Campus Initiative. The plan would be implemented over two years, starting with a “Great American Smoke Out” in November.
The money from PacificSource will go to the hiring of three staff members, one full time and one part time, to deal with creating a healthy campus. Rousseau stated that a Tobacco Free Campus would be the primary issue those people will work on, specifically a promotion and education plan. Rousseau mentioned adding signage promoting a smoke-free campus and taking down the smoking stations, but there would be no enforcement of the policy other than peer pressure and a culture change.
The idea is to educate new students that UO is a tobacco-free campus, so that is their expectation when they become students. Rousseau also mentioned that Oregon State University is implementing a policy in January, and she would love to do it first.
Other campuses in the country do this, including Arkansas and Kentucky. Should Oregon be added to that list?
Lyzi Diamond is the managing editor of the Oregon Commentator. She is a member of the Student Free Press Association.
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