Thank you for your support in keeping our campus tobacco free

The University of Nevada, Reno became a Tobacco Free University with support from faculty, staff, and students in 2015. I wanted to take this opportunity and share a few of our success stories:

·         The University has had more than 140 individuals utilize our cessation resources.

·         Several members of our Campus Health and Wellness Committee, including myself, have heard stories from people who have successfully quit and those that have given quitting a try. In fact, just last week, I spoke with an employee who reported he was two weeks tobacco free. 

·         We have also heard from those of you who want more enforcement and 100 percent compliance. We address these complaints with increased signage, education and ongoing review of the policy. 

·         We have heard about faculty who have challenged their students and colleagues to be better stewards of our campus and single handedly reduce cigarette butt litter in Hilliard Plaza by 80 percent. 

·         Our data shows that our tobacco use rates are at an all-time low for our undergraduate students! The reported daily use for cigarettes is only 1.4% and the daily use for e-cigarettes is only 1%.  Those that report using at least once in the last month is 7.8% for cigarettes and 6% for e-cigarettes.

Enforcement

Even with all of these success stories, the work of this initiative is ongoing and the University needs everyone's support and voice to help it progress. While all students, faculty and staff are expected to comply with this initiative to support a healthy campus environment, many people are still unaware of the policy or choose to ignore it. Community involvement was crucial to our campus decision to move to a Tobacco Free University, and we request that same collaborative spirit as we move forward. Other universities have demonstrated success with this model of education and awareness. Please encourage your peers, students, and colleagues to comply with the policy and support each other.  Talk to the people you interact with about the importance of a Tobacco Free Campus, the history of our campus supporting the policy and the reasons you support it! 

Support those who choose to quit smoking!

Research shows that people are most successful at quitting when they have support and a supportive environment. Research also shows that these environments prevent students from starting tobacco use. Your participation and respect of the initiative can help someone achieve their goal of quitting and it makes being tobacco free the easy choice for our students - both life changing and lifesaving acts! To further support those who want to quit, the University provides a variety of cessation resources. 

We welcome your feedback on concerns, compliments, or suggestions.  Please feel free to email ejennings@med.unr.edu