Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Student Congress Motion PASSED!

The motion with Student Congress at Gallaudet University passed tonight (2/18/09), thanks to Green Gallaudet representative Rachel Blake!

The motion was:
"We, members of the Green Gallaudet organization, move to join with other universities involved in the DC Tobacco Free Campus consortium (DCTFC) to support the transition of Gallaudet University from being a smoking campus to becoming a 100% smoke-free campus (excluding the Kellogg Conference Hotel)."
Now, onward to the faculty senate....

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Smokers Have The Right To Smoke?

If you have any doubt about the importance of eliminating smoke from the air you breathe day in, day out, consider these cold, hard facts:
  • Smoking kills more Americans every year than alcohol, illegal drugs, homicide, suicide, car accidents, fire, and AIDS combined.
  • Tobacco use accounts for 1 out of every 5 deaths
  • 50% of chronic tobacco users will suffer death or disability due to tobacco
  • 85% of lung cancers – the leading cause of cancer death for men and women – are due to tobacco use
  • One-third of all cancer deaths are due to tobacco.
  • Smoking is the most preventable cause of death in our society.

Smoke-free College Trend Growing - CNN

By Judy Fortin - November 11, 2007
CNN

GAINESVILLE, Georgia (CNN) -- When 19-year-old Reid Overton wants to smoke a cigarette on his college campus, he has to walk to a distant parking lot and get into his car, but he doesn't seem to mind. "Even as a smoker, I don't like to walk past a cloud of smoke," he says.

Overton is one of 5,300 students at Gainesville State College, an hour north of Atlanta, Georgia. A 4-year-old ban prohibits anyone from using tobacco products on campus, including students, faculty and visitors.

A smoke-free campus was the brainchild of longtime college president Martha Nesbitt, herself a former smoker. "It's just a healthier place to be," says Nesbitt, "because as you go in a building, you're not going to have to go through smoke. When you walk out, you don't see cigarette butts littered around. It's just a cleaner, healthier campus."

Nesbitt reports there haven't been any problems enforcing the ban. Signs are posted around campus, and the policy is prominently displayed on everything from the school Web site to admissions applications.

The American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation reports nearly 60 college campuses around the United States have smoke-free policies that affect the entire campus.

Other schools have limited restrictions, banning smoking indoors in residential housing and student facilities. Nesbitt believes her college is one of the first to fully prohibit the use of tobacco products. Watch more on efforts to curb smoking on campus »

The American Cancer Society says the movement is catching on. "The trend toward a smoke-free country is going on everywhere," says Daniel Smith, president of the American Cancer Society Action Network. "I think college campuses are simply reflecting the same trend we're seeing in society."

For the rest of the article, click here.

Friday, February 6, 2009

How Others Handled Enforcement of Smoke-Free Campuses

From: Ackerman, Judy (Vice President and Provost, Rockville Campus & Montgomery College)
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 11:12 PM
To: Shawntay Warren (American Lung Association DC chapter coordinator)
Subject: RE: DC Tobacco Free Campus Consortium

Hi Shawntay. Glad to hear that the consortium is continuing to discuss action steps. With regard to enforcement, we initially thought that all three campuses would use temporary, healthy campus advocates to walk around and inform the campus community about the policy and then to "write up" those who they saw smoking after the first couple of weeks of the semester. In reality, just the Rockville campus with a campus population of 16,000 used them. There was only one employee who they saw smoking and reported. Employee reports go to their supervisor who is expected to follow employee disciplinary protocols of meeting with the employee and giving an oral warning. If the behavior continues there is a written reprimand, suspection and even termination. After the dean spoke with this person and let the person know that discipline could lead to termination, the person said it wouldn't happen again. No one has seen the person smoking in the open. Students are reported to the dean of student development who follows the Student Code of Conduct for disciplinary problems. There is community service on the campus including clean-ups for the first infraction. More stringent consequences for subsequent violations. About 100 students were cited on our campus. You may want to speak with Dean Monica Brown or Associate Dean Helen Brewer for more specifics.

We are spending our time dealing with our neighbors on the other side of an open fence. Eight neighbors came to speak during comments at our Board of Trustee meeting last week. Most want a closed fence. We want a fence but have to work through some issues with the City of Rockville. We have been telling people that if they wish to smoke they need to go to sidewalks off campus, outside of the residential areas around the campus (2 sides of the campus).

Even as we deal with the students who go into the neighborhood to smoke and engage in disturbing behaviors, we hear from faculty, staff and students about those who have quit or cut back on their smoking. It's important to keep a vision of the goal. Someday this will be a non
issue for all of us when society catches up.

Judy E. Ackerman, Ph.D.
Vice President and Provost
Rockville Campus
Montgomery College
51 Mannakee Street
Rockville, MD 20850
240.567.5010
240.567.1741 FAX

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

DC TFC WorkPlan

(click on images to enlarge)





DC Tobacco-Free Campus (DCTFC) Meeting

Good Afternoon DCTFC,

I would like to thank you all for attending last night’s meeting. We accomplished a lot as we put together our strategy to go tobacco free campus. I especially want to thank Jean Toth of Catholic University for providing that wonderful meeting space. As promised, I have attached a copy of the workplan we discussed yesterday, which includes the action steps that were developed at the meeting. I included additional spaces on the workplan for you to fill in additional steps. Please be prepared to share any updates with the group at the next meeting.

I am also sending the list of churches that are a part of the DC Tobacco Free Holy Grounds (DCTFHG) initiative. Along with that, I have attached the summary of the initiative for your perusal. Feel free to send to the members of the churches we discussed yesterday. For many of you, having those churches join DCTFHG will make it much easier to get your campus to go tobacco free. The contact information for Bishop Wallace, who is the lead on that initiative, can be found in the document. In the coming weeks, I will develop a template letter and petition document for each of you to tailor according to the needs of your campuses, but I strongly urge you all to begin working on some of those other actions steps prior to our next meeting.

The next DCTFC consortium meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 25th at Georgetown University from 3:30-5pm. Following this email, I will send you an Outlook invitation so it will be saved to your calendars. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me or Debra Annand any time. Debra’s email address is dannand@aladc.org. Again, thank you for your time and commitment. See you all next month!

Sincerely,

Shawntay Warren
Communications Coordinator
American Lung Association of D.C.
DC Tobacco Free Families Campaign
530 7th Street, SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
Phone: 202-546-5864
Mobile: 202-441-1537
website: www.aladc.org

Meeting with American Lung Association

Meeting with American Lung Association, January 23, 2009

Coordinating the meeting: Gwendolyn Francavillo, Health and Wellness Coordinator
Shawntay Warren, Communications Coordinator, American Lung Association of DC
Gary Aller, Executive Director, Business Operations
Raychelle Harris, Faculty, Department of Interpretation
Raylene Paludneviciene, Faculty, Department of Psychology


Shawntay brought us up to speed about her initiative in connecting all DC colleges and universities and to make the transition to a smoke-free campus simultaneously. The rationale behind this is the number one concern of nearly all college administrators is the potentially negative impact on enrollment. Having all campuses in one same location turn 100% smoke-free would possibly negate the enrollment concern of many administrators. In her experience working with other colleges and universities, Shawntay reassured us that enrollment is never impacted, in fact, many parents find sending their child to a smoke-free university a nice bonus. Students choose colleges & universities based on what they provide, not whether if they are smoke-free or not. Regardless, a consortium of DC colleges & universities was established in December 2008. Gallaudet was unable to send a representative then, but hopes to do so at the next meeting of DC Tobacco-Free Campus consortium (DCTFC) on February 25th.

Shawntay shared one constant strategy of successful smoke-free campus movements is the power of students. Garner support through students first, then faculty then staff then ultimately address the administration.

Some of the things discussed during the meeting:
  1. Having data/stats to back up our movement (e.g. % of students, faculty and staff in support of this movement, % of who actually smoke, % who would want free smoking cessation support/programs, etc.)
  2. Getting DC Youth Environment Alliance on board: http://dcyea.org/
  3. Finding a staff representative
  4. Service Learning opportunity for GSR courses
  5. Green Gallaudet student organization being responsible for making a proposal for Student Congress passage on making Gallaudet 100% smoke-free.
  6. Then making a similar proposal at the University Faculty Senate.