The UW Stevens Point campus goes tobacco-free beginning next week. The Stevens Point campus joins some 700 colleges and universities with tobacco bans, and is the first UW System campus to implement the policy.
Director of University Student Health Services, Jen Sorenson, said the decision was made after considering the views of students, faculty, staff. She said the effort will be primarily one of educating people about the new policy. “If someone is found using tobacco products on campus, we have even provided scripts to those individuals that encounter them, helping them say ‘please don’t use tobacco on campus.'”
No tobacco use will be permitted the Stevens Point campus, although a designated smoking area will remain in place at the university’s Treehaven facility in Tomahawk until fall 2015. The ban applies to all students, faculty and staff, and any visitors to campus, 24 hours a day.
There will be help for people to quit. “We even can supply through our pharmacy at student health services options for tobacco-free or herbal snuff,” Sorenson. “And we’re planning to offer group support as well as individual counseling for smokers or chewers.”
The ban will also include e-cigarettes. Sorenson said those “nicotine delivery systems” haven’t yet been determined to be safe by the FDA.