Centennial Honors College
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2014
Poster Presentation
No Smoking Policies on College Campuses and Their Implementation
Alexis Kathalynas
Faculty Mentor: Casey LaFrance
Political Science
No smoking policies on college campuses are becoming increasingly popular especially
within the state of Illinois. There are currently around 1,182 U.S. colleges and
universities that are 100% smoke free. Smoke free campuses in Illinois include: Aurora
University, 7 City Colleges of Chicago, College of DuPage, Greenville College, Hannibal
LaGrange University, McHenry County College, Rush University, Southern Illinois
University, and University of Illinois Chicago and Urbana-Champaign. This particular
research is based on the current issue of smoking on campus and implementation of
smoke free campus policies. In addition, major national and state laws/acts will be
analyzed. While smoking has decreased in prevalence over the years, it is still a
common occurrence especially among college students. As a result, second hand
smoke is a major issue and contributor of respiratory and cardiovascular complications.
According to an article in The Journal of American College Health, “20.6% of the U.S.
population are still current smokers and there are 443,000 smoking related deaths per
year.(Lechner) This is a general overview of the current issue of smoking. The
information contained in this research is based off of numerous articles on no smoking
policies of various colleges, information regarding Western’s policies, and strategies to
implement such a policy and make it effective.