Advocating for smoke-free campuses: A local and statewide perspective

In 1998, young adult smoking rates exceeded the rates of all age groups. In response to this troubling trend, public health professionals began working with college campuses to decrease tobacco use among the college population. Policy advocacy efforts have been focused on a wide variety of initiatives such as completely smoke-free campuses, the sale of tobacco products on campus, elimination of tobacco industry sponsorship, product promotion at fraternities and sororities, and tobacco industry funded research. The California Youth Advocacy Network (CYAN), a statewide project-funded through the California Department of Public Health, has been working with college campuses for 10+ years on tobacco-free policy adoption. In 2007, CYAN partnered with students and public health advocates at California State University Northridge (CSUN) who began mobilizing their community and administration to adopt a completely smoke-free campus policy. The policy campaign at CSUN was developed at a grassroots level and started off by conducting campus assessments, creating smoke-free policy-task forces, and working with campus decision makers to adopt, implement, and enforce tobacco-free policies that will decrease tobacco use among students, faculty, and staff.

This presentation will highlight the third phase of the CSUN project which began in 2007. Presenters will provide an overview of tobacco related problems on campus and will give specific examples from CSUN and other California college on how advocates have utilized policy advocacy strategies to decrease tobacco use in college communities.