Monday, November 25, 2013

UIS examining its on-campus tobacco policy

Whether to change the school athletic teams’ nickname isn’t the only burning issue on the University of Illinois Springfield campus.

An email went out Nov. 11 to UIS students, faculty and staff asking them to participate in an online survey on the campus smoking policy, which currently bans smoking indoors in compliance with state law and allows smoking otherwise only in designated areas.

Surveys also are being taken at some on-campus events, and three public forums are scheduled to get more feedback on the issue.

A bill proposed in the legislature last spring would have banned smoking on all state university campuses. The bill didn’t get far, but UIS Chancellor Susan Koch decided the university should begin looking at the issue.

The University of Illinois Chicago’s campus went tobacco-free July 1, and the Urbana-Champaign campus is scheduled to go smoke-free Jan. 1, said UIS spokesman Derek Schnapp.

The story was reported by The State Journal-Register on November 23, 2013.

Read the story online