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Tobacco-Free Campus Policy

The University is committed to providing a reasonably safe and healthy living/learning/working environment for the students, faculty, staff, and visitors by minimizing the negative effects of secondhand smoke, improving fire safety, and encouraging a more sustainable environment.

The negative health effects of tobacco use have been well documented over the last 50 years since the original Surgeon General's report in 1964. Those negative effects pose public health concerns in a school environment as well. The U.S government's Healthy People 2020 also lists tobacco-related illness as a top health determinant that negatively affects the lives of citizens.

Effective January 1, 2017, tobacco use is prohibited on all University property, both indoors and outdoors, and in University-owned vehicles. The Tobacco-Free Campus Policy applies to all forms of tobacco, including but not limited to cigarettes, cigars, pipes, water pipes (hookahs), chew, electronic cigarettes, and smokeless tobacco products. The policy is applicable twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week. Accordingly:

  • This policy applies to any individual on University property, including but not limited to students, faculty, staff, other employees, contractors, subcontractors, volunteers, visitors, guests and members of the public.
  • The policy applies to all University facilities, property, and vehicles, owned or leased, regardless of location.
  • Tobacco use will not be permitted in any enclosed place, including, but not limited to, all offices, classrooms, hallways, waiting rooms, restrooms, meeting rooms, community areas, performance venues and private residential space within University housing.
  • Tobacco use will be prohibited outdoors on all University campus property, including, but not limited to, loading docks, university owned streets and sidewalks, parking lots, parking garages, shuttle bus stops, paths, fields, sports/recreational areas, and stadiums.
  • In further recognition of the incompatibility of the University's educational mission and the promotion of tobacco products, no tobacco-related advertising or sponsorship will be permitted on University property, at University-sponsored events, or in publications produced by the University, with the exception of advertising in a newspaper or magazine that is not produced by the University and which is lawfully sold, bought, or distributed on University property.
  • Cigarettes, including electronic cigarettes, cigars, and pipes, including hookah pipes, shall not be sold or distributed as samples on university grounds, either in vending machines, the student union, or any area on campus.
  • Littering of remains of Tobacco products or any other related waste product on Campus Property is further prohibited.

Definitions

  1. For the purposes of this policy, "Tobacco Related" applies to the use of a tobacco brand or corporate name, trademark, logo, symbol, or motto, selling message, recognizable pattern or colors, or any other indicia of product identical to or similar to, or identifiable with, those used for any brand of tobacco products or company which manufactures tobacco products.
  2. "E-cigarette" means any electronic device, such as one composed of a heating element, battery, and/or electronic circuit, which provides a vapor of nicotine or any other substances, and the use or inhalation of which stimulates smoking. The term also includes a reference to any such device, whether manufactured, distributed, marketed, or sold as an e-cigarette, e-cigar, e-pipe, e-hookah, or vape pen, or under any other product name or descriptor.
  3. "Smoking" means inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying any lighted or heated cigar, cigarette, or pipe, or any other lighted or heated tobacco or plant product intended for inhalation, including water pipes, bongs, hookahs and marijuana, whether natural or synthetic, in any manner or in any form. "Smoking" also includes the use of an electronic smoking device that creates an aerosol or vapor, in any manner or in any form, or the use of any oral smoking device for the purpose of circumventing the prohibition of smoking in this Article.
  4. "Tobacco Product" means any substance containing tobacco leaf, including but not limited to, cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, beedies, kreteks, pipe tobacco, hookah tobacco, snuff, chewing tobacco, dipping tobacco, bidis, blunts, clove cigarettes, or any other preparation of tobacco; and, any product or formulation of matter containing biologically active amounts of nicotine that is manufactured, sold, offered for sale, or otherwise distributed with the expectation that the product or matter will be introduced into the human body by inhalation, but does not include any cessation product specifically approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in treating nicotine or tobacco dependence.

Exceptions

  • Ceremonial Smoking: Individuals or groups interested in Smoking as part of a ceremony in or on University property must seek advance approval from the Provost by submitting a request for approval through the Tobacco-Free Campus website.
  • Tobacco Use in Research: Tobacco use may be allowed in an enclosed area on Campus Property for a medical, scientific, or research program, provided that tobacco use is an integral part of such program and received prior approval from the Provost for the inclusion of tobacco use in the program pursuant to the applicable procedures for such medical, scientific, or research program.
  • Gilhooley's Grande Saloon will follow the City of Chicago laws.

Communications

Copies of this policy will be distributed to all faculty and staff and will be included with information given to all admitted students. Announcements also will be included in campus newspapers to insure that everyone understands the policy. Tobacco free signs will be posted at all points of entry to on University property and at all University building entrances.

Please Note: This policy applies to all University property whether or not such notices are posted. No ashtrays shall be provided at any location on campus.

Organizers of and attendees at public events, such as conferences, meetings, public lectures, social events, cultural events, and sporting events, as well as non-University events held on Campus Property must abide by this policy. Organizers of such events are responsible for informing attendees of this policy.

Support

On-site ®tobacco cessation programs are available at the SXU Health Center on an on-going basis to assist and encourage individuals who wish to quit using tobacco.

Enforcement

The success of this policy will depend on the thoughtfulness, consideration, and cooperation of smokers and nonsmokers. All students, faculty, staff and visitors share in the responsibility for adhering to and enforcing this policy. Violations of the policy will be treated in accordance with general campus disciplinary procedures.

An individual may inform someone using tobacco on campus property of this policy and request that the tobacco user complies with the policy. Noncompliant individuals who are perceived as threatening or violent may be referred to Public Safety. Individuals also may report policy violations through the reporting procedures on the Tobacco-Free Campus website, located at Tobacco-Free Noncompliance Reporting Form.

Individuals found to be noncompliant will be subject to existing campus disciplinary measures:

  1. For students, such noncompliance will be referred to the Interim VP for Student Affairs/Dean of Students.
  2. For employees, noncompliance will be referred to the employee's supervisor, and/or the Office of Human Resources.
  3. For contractors and subcontractors, noncompliance will be referred to the campus unit responsible for monitoring performance of the applicable contract.
  4. Visitors and members of the public who refuse to comply with this policy may be asked to leave campus.