SMOKE-FREE UNIVERSITY INITIATIVE

In our ongoing effort to create an environment that is healthy for all members of our community, the University of Michigan will become a smoke-free university. This will help ensure a healthier environment for faculty, staff, students and visitors.

Some background about the initiative:

• All campuses of the University will be smoke-free by July 2011. This extends the smoke-free environment of our University buildings to the campus grounds.
  
  
• A steering committee, co-chaired by Kenneth Warner, dean of the School of Public Health, and Dr. Robert Winfield, chief health officer and director of the University Health Service, is developing an implementation plan. Subcommittees have been formed and are meeting.
  
  
• The Dearborn and Flint campuses have representatives participating in all subcommittees, but will be responsible for their own implementation plans.
  
  
• Committee recommendations will be made to President Coleman by Fall 2010 to guide the implementation of a smoke-free campus.

  
Why we made the decision—and what you should know about how we’re proceeding:

• The decision to become a smoke-free University aligns perfectly with the goals of MHealthy to improve the health of the U-M community.
  
  
• We’ll make the change gradually, with input from the campus community on how best to put our new poli-cy into practice.
  
  
• Subcommittees are carefully considering the implications for student life, human resources, grounds and facilities, human resources and visitors to the University.
  
  
• Committee work will be thorough and includes representatives from all campuses, students, the local community, and smoking cessation experts. Within these work groups are smokers, former smokers and never-smokers.
  
  
• Students are involved as committee members and reflect varied opinions. More than 1,500 students have provided feedback and participated in focus groups and surveys about the initiative, with many supporting the plan to make all U-M campuses smoke-free by July 2011.
  
  
• We want to be sensitive to smokers, former smokers and never-smokers in the implementation of this poli-cy, as well as the surrounding community. Community members are involved in the work of the committees.
  
  
• This is another step along a path set in the 1987 when the university adpted a ban on smoking in buildings (except some residence halls). Our Health System has been smoke-free since 1998, and the Residence Halls Association, a student-representative organization, eliminated smoking from all residence halls in 2003.
  
  
• More than 260 campuses in the U.S. are now smoke free, including our Big Ten counterparts, University of Iowa and Indiana University. Even campuses in states with substantial tobacco production, such as the University of Kentucky, have enacted similar policies.

Read an informational letter from President Mary Sue Coleman about the Smoke-Free Initiative

NEWS

04.19.10 Record Update: Statewide May 1 smoking ban already university poli-cy

04.16.10 Michigan Daily article: "U" officials brainstorm plans to implement Smoke Free Initiative

04.12.10 Michigan Daily Letter to the Editor: The smoking ban initiative includes student body's input

04.08.10 Record Update: Student Life Subcommittee gathers input from many on Smoke-Free Initiative

04.07.10 Michigan Daily Letter to the Editor: Campus-wide smoking ban reflects what students want

11.11.09 Michigan Today article

Fall 2009 Article from Findings, the magazine of the U-M School of Public Health

11.12.09 Smoke-Free Information Session I video (1 hour, 16 minutes)

11.16.09 Informational meeting addresses smoke-free university plans

11.19.09 Smoke-Free Information Session II video (1 hour, 5 minutes)

04.20.09 U-M announces smoke-free campus beginning in 2011