As the number of students on college campuses who smoke continues to rise, a Washington-based group called the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is lobbying colleges and universities to create more smoke-free residence halls and anti-smoking programs for college.
The University now allows smoking in individual residence hall rooms if both roommates consent, but smoking is not allowed in common areas.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids bases its current effort on two studies by the Harvard School for Public Health that were published this week in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and the Journal of American College Health.
According to the Harvard studies, smoking among college students rose by more than 25 percent in the 1990s to about 28 percent, and found students entering college as non-smokers are 40 percent less likely to take up smoking when they live in smoke-free residence halls. Only 27 percent of colleges and universities, however, provide smoke-free housing.
The study also found that over 40 percent of colleges do not offer smoking cessation programs to help students quit smoking.
The increased rate of college student smokers "should be no surprise because it's the children of the Marlboro Man and Joe Camel who are now in college and smoking at record levels," said Vince Willmore, communications director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
"We think this study is a wake up call for college administrators to do more to stop smoking on college campuses. College is the last opportunity for us to reach a large group of people in one place and help young people avoid the dangers of smoking."
According to Housing Division officials, providing smoke-free housing is an issue that has been raised over the past few years, but no serious attempt has been made to create a substance-free housing policy.
Second-year Architecture student Jeff Pierce, who said he picked up smoking his first year, said he does not think smoke-free residence halls would be effective because there are so many other places besides the residence hall where one is exposed to smoking. "You can always just go outside if you want to smoke," Pierce said.
John Griffin, Housing Division associate director of operations, said the increase in student smoking has created problems for housing, such as complaints from residents of second-hand smoke.
However, "it would be an uphill battle to get all residence halls to be substance free" because there has been "no groundswell support" for such efforts at the University, Griffin said.
Health care officials around the University have met the call for smoke-free housing with mixed reactions.
"Frankly, I doubt smoke-free housing will have a tremendous impact on reducing student smoking," said Morton Wilhelm, director of education for the Cancer Center at University Hospital.
Cynthia Burwell, director of health promotion for the Student Health Center, said smoke-free residence halls may help people cut down on their smoking habits and reduce students' health risk from second-hand smoke.
Student Health now is working on several projects to deter students from smoking and help those who are trying to quit, such as providing a class for smoking students that teaches them how to quit in the college environment.
If smoke-free housing were made available, it would definitely be utilized and receive support in the University community, Burwell said.
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