BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Starting this fall, Louisiana State University’s main campus will ban all tobacco products.
A committee hopes to have the policy change in place by Aug. 1, university spokesman Ernie Ballard told The Advocate (https://bit.ly/1j04CME ).
It would also need approval by LSU President and Chancellor F. King Alexander.
The university already limits smoking to designated areas.
“It’s been a very long haul,” said Judith Sylvester, an associate professor at LSU who has led the charge to ban smoking on campus. “I’m very, very happy, but I’m also very realistic. Just having the policy is less than half the battle.”
Campus police won’t be able to write tickets for smoking. Leaders acknowledge that for campus visitors and tailgating football fans, it will be more of a recommendation.
Southern University has banned tobacco use on its campuses since 2012. Southern’s policy says penalties range from verbal warnings to student expulsion.
Sylvester said she hopes the campus community will self-police to stamp out tobacco.
“We’re definitely going to use the social-norming approach,” she said. “Seventy percent of us do not use any kind of tobacco products. We are the norm, not the tobacco user.”
Sylvester said the university could provide cards explaining the policy and the dangers of tobacco use for people to hand out to those they spot smoking. She also would like to see the university’s kiosks around campus provide such information to promote the policy.
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Information from: The Advocate, https://theadvocate.com
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