University Gets Burned for Tobacco Policy

By Tani Pozirekides

While the sale of tobacco on campus is prohibited, the study found that the tobacco use policy is "considerably weaker than the majority of colleges in Santa Clara County, which prohibit smoking on campus or limit smoking to parking lots," according to the official report. While Santa Clara prohibits tobacco within 25 feet of all buildings and stadiums, there was "limited information about the policy and placement of ash cans near buildings can result in individuals smoking near entry ways and windows."

In most cases, students are not even aware of the 25-foot rule. 

"I personally wasn't aware that we even had a 25-foot rule for a smoking policy," said junior Taylor Womack.  "I don't think that smoking is a huge issue on campus, but I definitely think that people are unaware of the 25 foot rule and I've seen people break it."

In addition to tobacco sales and the on-campus smoking policies, many other categories contribute to the grade. Education and enforcement and effectiveness of the current policy were also considered, said Kim Homer Vagadori, the project director of the California Youth Advocacy Network, which conducted the survey. According to the Santa Clara Student Handbook, the smoking policy states that Santa Clara has adopted a nonsmoking policy. Smoking is prohibited at all times in all university facilities that house offices, work areas, classrooms or residence rooms. Members of the community who choose to smoke must reamin at least 25 feet from any building openings. 

While Santa Clara received a "D" grade, both San Jose State and Stanford University received an "F" due to their allowance of tobacco sales on their respective campuses. Despite achieving a higher grade, "Santa Clara has one of the weakest smoke-free policies of all of the colleges in the country," said Vagadori.

Though the smoking policy is considered very weak by the Department of Health, Kim Gilkey, assistant dean for Off Campus Student Life, doesn't believe that there is a prevalent amount of tobacco use on campus. "There's not a preponderance of people smoking on campus, and there's no smoking in the residence halls," said Gilkey. 

The Health Department report found that Santa Clara needed to provide training to peer health educators on tobacco use to make sure that the student body is better aware of upcoming tobacco issues such as new products, social smoking and nicotine addiction. 

While Santa Clara does not sell tobacco on campus, Santa Clara itself is still not designated as tobacco free, but there are provisions that can be made to improve the score. "Santa Clara could make a stronger policy which would decrease smoking on campus" said Vagadori. "What we recommend is to adopt a smoke-free campus policy which would eliminate tobacco use and smoking on campus and do a long implementation period so that the university has time to prepare the campus and help students quit and decrease their tobacco use". 

Contact Tani Pozirekides at Apozirekides@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4849.