Syracuse University’s new tobacco-free policy may seem progressive, but the school was actually behind the curve in implementing one.

“In many respects, we were slower to do this than many other places,” said Thomas Dennison, director of the Health Services Management and Policy program at SU.

SU is now one of about 975 tobacco-free campuses in the United States. The SU campus is surrounded by organizations and properties that have already gone tobacco-free, including Crouse Hospital, Upstate Medical University and the Syracuse VA Medical Center, Dennison said. Enforcement of the university’s policy will be based on community participation and a cultural change on campus.

Under the new policy, students, faculty, staff and visitors may not use tobacco on any properties owned or leased by SU, with the exceptions of outdoor areas of the Carrier Dome, the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel and Conference Center, Drumlins Golf and Tennis Club and Syracuse Stage. These spaces will not be covered by the tobacco-free policy until July 2017, according to the SU tobacco-free website.

Not only were students integral in pushing the policy forward, but they now play a key role in enforcing it.

The policy that went into effect on July 1 isn’t enforced by the issuance of tickets by the Department of Public Safety or by any other disciplinary means. Rather, tobacco users on campus may be approached by an SU community member and asked to stop smoking or using tobacco in any other manner.

“The policy is structured as a community effort — so anyone has the right to approach someone else smoking or using tobacco on campus and explain we’re tobacco-free, ask them to stop, etc.,” said Hannah Warren, DPS’s public information and internal communications officer, in an email.

The SU Wellness website offers “communication toolkits” that advise SU students and employees on how to politely approach people using tobacco on campus and ask them to stop. The toolkits also offer scenarios that detail how to handle interactions in a courteous and encouraging manner.

“We really want to approach it from a spirit of cooperation and get everybody’s buy-in rather than, you know, pointing the finger or saying, ‘No, no, you can’t do that,’” said Gail Grozalis, executive director of Faculty and Staff Wellness at SU.

Dennison said issuing tickets for smoking is a type of implementation that “isn’t really going to get us anywhere.”

While the community enforces the policy, administrators hope it will be effective over time through an eventual cultural change on campus and university-sponsored tobacco cessation programs.

One reason administrators implemented the tobacco-free policy is the financial stake SU has in its employees’ health. Since the university is self-insured, it would have to pay the expense of treating employees with tobacco-related illnesses. SU also has a financial stake in making sure its employees are healthy when they come to work so they can be productive, Dennison said.

Dennison said the university also adopted the policy to act as a “role model” and take a stand against the adverse health effects of tobacco use.

The tobacco-free initiative underwent countless reviews by a committee chaired by Dennison. The process of designing the policy took a long time because the committee wanted to ensure the policy was as inclusive, fair and balanced as it could possibly be, Dennison said.

SU will sponsor several different tobacco cessation programs to accompany the tobacco-free policy. There will be two separate sessions for employees and students to learn about methods to quit smoking starting on Sept. 23.

In accordance with its health insurance policy, SU will cover the cost of tobacco replacement therapy for students and employees at their private physician’s office, Dennison said. The university has already made arrangements for members of the SU community to get nicotine replacement patches, Dennison added.

“I’m actually really happy that the university is doing that because if you’re going to install a policy that affects a big proportion of our student population — especially our international students — you need to offer some kind of support for that as well,” said Student Association President Aysha Seedat of the tobacco cessation programs.

The university will gauge the success of the initiative by identifying the percentage of community members who smoke and observe the pattern of diagnosis of tobacco-related illnesses from on-campus health assessments, Dennison said.

Though it will take a while for data-based conclusions to show the success of the tobacco-free policy, Dennison is confident that the policy will be successful at SU like it has been at other universities of the same size.

“This is not a research project in the sense that we’ve set out to do research and design,” Dennison said. “We’ve done what universities across the country have reported to be the best practices to discourage the use of tobacco, and we’re hoping that those evidence-based interventions will have an impact for us.”

Published on September 2, 2015 at 11:32 pm

Contact Alexa: atorrens@syr.edu