Canadian Campus Smoking Policies: Investigating the Gap Between Intent and Outcome From a Student Perspective

Abstract

These findings imply that the presence of campus smoking policies and claims of "smoke-free" campuses should not be misinterpreted as achievement and without renewed focus and adequate tobacco control infrastructure, it will remain possible for young adults to initiate and maintain tobacco smoking on campus.

Predictors of support among students, faculty and staff for a smoke-free university campus

“…However, considerable challenges in policy implementation have also been identified, including enforcement difficulties, displacement of smokers to the outskirts of campus, community relations, and safety concerns, among other issues (Baillie et al, 2009(Baillie et al, , 2011Fennell, 2012;Procter-Scherdtel and Collins, 2013a;Russette et al, 2014). Thus, despite the increasing number of smoke-free campus policies, there is only limited understanding of how to implement them successfully.…”

Conveying campus sexual misconduct policy information to college and university students: Results from a 7-campus study

“…Researchers who examined the effectiveness of student compliance with institutional policies note the importance of different 19 and creative 24 dissemination methods, as well as policy reiteration and enforcement. 20 In addition, researchers note the importance of measuring the effectiveness of the policy dissemination methods. 25 Finally, we examined research on campus sexual assault prevention programs, as these studies offer insights into methods that have been applied to teach students about campus sexual assault and the ways in which they can help to prevent it that might be useful when applied to the teaching of sexual misconduct policies.…”

“…Therefore, we draw on research examining the impact of campus policies in other domains. The largest body of research on the dissemination of campus policies is in the area of tobacco [19][20][21] and alcohol 22 use policies. College-aged students are a "target" audience of both the tobacco industry 20,23 and the alcoholic beverage industry, thus creating challenges for institutional compliance of policies focusing on the reduction of both behaviors.…”

Enforcing a Tobacco-Free Campus Through an Ambassador-Based Program: A Phenomenology

“…Even those who are noncompliant report that their campus policy is poorly enforced. [9][10][11] In 2014, Jancey and colleagues interviewed 50 students and staff who were observed violating a university tobacco-free policy in order to better understand why people are noncompliant. The reasons included the intention to defy the policy's encroachment on self-governance, the inconvenience of having to move off campus to smoke, the physiological need to use tobacco, the confusion of policy boundary lines, and the ease of violating the policy without being noticed or without exposing other people to secondhand smoke.…”

“…7 Although tobacco-free policies result in positive change, research indicates that campuses still tend to experience noncompliant behavior from students, staff, and faculty. Anecdotal evidence, 8 qualitative interviews, [9][10][11][12] cross-sectional surveys, 13 and observational studies 4,14-18 suggest that a noteworthy number of people violate tobacco policies on college campuses. For instance, in 2013, Ickes and colleagues observed 529 people violate the University of Kentucky's tobacco-free policy in just a 4-week observational period.…”