University officials announced in a press conference on Wednesday that campus will be tobacco free by fall 2012 and that PacificSource Health Plans will be donating $1 million to the Healthy Campus Initiative.
Particulars, such as how the tobacco free policy will be implemented, have yet to be decided.
The $1 million, which will go to Student Affairs, is $200,000 more than originally announced by ASUO President Amelie Rousseau at the Oct. 20 ASUO Senate meeting.
The grant will be for implementing the initiative for the next five years, after which the University plans to fundraise additional support.
Speakers at the press conference included University Senior Vice President and Provost Jim Bean, PacificSource President and CEO Ken Provencher, CEO and President American Lung Association of the Mountain Pacific Renee Klein, University Health Center Director Dana Mills and Rousseau.
“UO will kick the habit and become tobacco free,” Bean said, speaking on behalf of University President Richard Lariviere, who is still recovering from surgery.
Rousseau said this move represents University students taking a stand against big tobacco companies. She said the policy will help minority groups on campus and keep the University sustainable.
“Today we’re choosing the health of all,” she said. “Whether through an environmental or justice stand, our students are taking a stand against corrupt corporations.”
Mills said the health center is supporting student smokers who choose to quit, and added that starting yesterday and continuing today, University smokers who throw away a pack will have free massage and acupuncture options.
PacificSource’s $1 million grant to the University is part of a $4 million donation, which will provide funding to Oregon State University for a similar Healthy Campus Initiative, to help sponsor a Civil War health competition called the HealthyLife Challenge and to have a health initiative for communities around Oregon. However, Provencher did not know if Oregon State sought to have a tobacco free campus like the University.
“What we’re doing with the Civil War is using a competition aspect challenge to recognize communities, employers and campuses for good health choices,” Provencher said.
Rousseau said she thinks students will support this policy.
“I think once students are educated on the issue and understand that the policy is respectful of all those who disagree with it,” she said. “I think people understand that this is a good thing for us to lead by example; a good thing for sustainability and health.”
Paula Staight, University director of health promotion, said this policy is the culmination of five to six years of review and study. The original recommendation of a tobacco-free campus came from the Smoke Free Task Force, which was a subcommittee of the Environmental Issues Committee. Staight also said that of the most recent data collected in spring 2010, 75 percent of students surveyed said they want a smoke-free campus. However, it is noted that the data was collected from 837 University student respondents out of 5,000 randomly selected students on a campus with a student population of nearly 23,000 students.
To Bean, a University tobacco-free policy is a step in the right direction for students, faculty and staff.
“It’s really a statement of the culture of the community,” Bean said. “We just really want to make a value statement about clean air.”
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