While the University currently has policies preventing smoking in various places on campus, it could be totally off-limits by fall 2014.
LSU would be joining the ranks of more than 400 colleges and universities nationwide already operating tobacco-free, including the LSU Health Sciences Center and Nicholls State University.
The LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans outlawed tobacco in March 2012, and reported on its website that in the year preceding the ban, readiness efforts were held to promote the new policy, including the removal of ash trays on campus.
Nicholls State became tobacco free in January 2011, after first prohibiting tobacco use within 25 feet of any university buildings in 2006.
Chris Coulon, assistant to dean of student services at Nicholls State University, said the school made the switch after several semesters of student programs leading up to the cessation.
“We’ve been smoke free for several years and it’s been working out very well,” Coulon said. “It’s much nicer for non-smokers.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 18.9 percent of adults ages 18 to 24 in the U.S. smoke.
The CDC reported that secondhand smoke causes an estimated 46,000 premature deaths from heart disease each year in the United States among non-smokers.
The University’s smoking and tobacco use policies that went into effect in 2011 are designed to prevent non-smokers from being exposed to secondhand smoke by allowing smoking only in open areas 30 feet away from doorways.
However, in June, Gov. Bobby Jindal signed Senate Bill 36, which mandates that all colleges and universities develop strict non-smoking policies by Aug. 1, 2014.
International studies freshman Cooper Spivak said a tobacco ban on LSU’s campus it would be difficult to enforce.
“It’s going to make something that shouldn’t be illegal, basically illegal,” Spivak said. “I’m going to have to leave campus to have a cigarette.”
Coulon said she was sure there were a few students at Nicholls State who managed to sneak cigarettes every now and then, but overall there was little resistance to the ban.
“It’s going to be hard on the smokers on campus, and inconvenience them greatly,” Spivak said.
“Its going to make something that shouldn’t be illegal basically illegal.”