As members of the Student Health Advisory Committee, we are writing to express our support for the smoke-free campus initiative. Over the past five years, the student-led Clean Air Project has promoted a smoke-free campus with awareness campaigns and cigarette butt pick-up events. SHAC has also been a champion of these efforts, and we want to lend our support to ASUO in making this happen.
As SHAC members, we serve as liaisons between students and the Health Center and work to keep campus healthy and accessible for all students. A recent survey of University students showed that 75 percent agreed that the right to breathe clean air should take precedence over the right to smoke.
It is our responsibility to advocate for public health policy that will enable everyone to walk through campus without exposure to cigarette smoke.
A smoke-free environment will also create a cleaner campus. Clean Air Project students have picked up more than 18,000 cigarette butts in an academic year. University Facilities estimated that it costs $8,000 to $10,000 per year to clean up butts.
Maintaining the beauty of campus and saving money should be of interest to all students, faculty and staff.
A smoke-free campus policy not only makes great sense but is overdue.
Already more than 400 universities and community colleges have gone smoke- or tobacco-free.
We could be the first school in the PAC-10 to go smoke or tobacco free.
We support ASUO’s efforts in making our campus safer for everyone.
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