SPOKANE — Tobacco and nicotine products may be banned from the sprawling Washington State University campus in Pullman.
The Board of Regents will vote Friday on the proposed ban, which would make WSU one of more than 1,100 tobacco-free campuses in the nation.
Under the proposed ban, smokers would have to leave campus or sit in their cars to smoke, chew or use any product that contains nicotine.
“The whole intent of this is that we are trying to promote healthier lifestyles and choices and smoking cessation,” Dwight Hagihara, a WSU administrator who leads the task force assigned to research the ban, said on Tuesday.
The college years are a critical period when many people begin smoking, Hagihara said.
Washington State University’s Spokane campus banned tobacco use in 2012, and WSU Vancouver followed in 2013. The WSU Tri-Cities campus is also considering a ban, Hagihara said.
The proposed rule for the Pullman campus, which has about 20,000 students, would ban tobacco use in all university-owned buildings, parking lots, sidewalks, streets and fields. That includes the Palouse Ridge golf course.
There would be no designated smoking areas outside of buildings, as there have been since state law banned smoking within 25 feet of a public building entrance.
The regents’ decision comes nearly a year after undergraduates passed a student government ballot measure calling for the ban.
Smoking-cessation services will be available through student health organizations and in conjunction with employees’ health insurance, Hagihara said.
While the proposed rule calls for disciplinary action against students and employees who violate the ban, administrators don’t expect a big crackdown on smokers.
If approved by the regents, the ban would take effect in August.
There are more than 1,600 smoke-free campuses in the nation and more than 1,100 are completely tobacco-free, according to the Tobacco Free College Campus Initiative.
There are already more than a dozen tobacco-free campuses in Washington, including Clark College, Green River Community College, Lower Columbia College, North Seattle College, Pacific Lutheran University, Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, Seattle Pacific University, South Puget Sound Community College, Walla Walla Community College, Walla Walla University and Wenatchee Valley College.
According to the tobacco-free initiative, which was created by the U.S. Department of Health, 99 percent of smokers begin using tobacco by age 26.
