Beginning on January 1, 2018, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will prohibit smoking, tobacco use, and vaping on university property. You can find the university’s official policy here: https://www.unl.edu/tobacco-free-and-smoke-free-campus-policy/.
Additional information and links to resources are available here: https://www.unl.edu/tobacco-free-2018/.
A summary of some of the policy’s key points follows.
· As noted above, the tobacco-free policy prohibits smoking, tobacco use, and vaping on university property. “Tobacco” is defined as all tobacco-derived or containing products, including but not limited to, cigarettes (including variations such as clove, bidis, kreteks), electronic cigarettes, vaporizers, cigars and cigarillos, hookah smoked products, pipes, oral/smokeless tobacco (e.g., spit and spitless, smokeless, dissolvable, gutka, chew, snus) and nasal tobacco (e.g., snuff). It also includes any product that is intended to mimic tobacco products, that contains tobacco flavoring, or that delivers nicotine other than for the purpose of cessation.
· Only FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapy products are permitted.
· The tobacco-free policy applies to property that is university owned, leased, occupied, maintained, or otherwise controlled by the university. Tobacco use is also prohibited in any vehicle parked on university property.
· Smoking cessation resources are available. Students may obtain free “quick kits” at the University Health Center (402-472-5000); visit Counseling and Psychological Services for four free individual counseling sessions; and visit the Tobacco Cessation Clinic at the UNMC College of Dentistry, which provides individual counseling and follow-up. Faculty and staff may use the Employee Assistance Program (402-472-3107), which offers free individual and group cessation counseling; and they too may use the Tobacco Cessation Clinic at the College of Dentistry. Students, faculty, and staff can also access community resources such as Tobacco Free Nebraska and Smokefree.gov. More information about these and other cessation resources may be found here: https://www.unl.edu/tobacco-free-2018/#cessation.
· If you observe visitors violating the policy, the university encourages you to notify them politely of the new policy. New signs calling attention to the policy are being posted at all of the entrances to the College of Law, so you will be able to refer visitors to those signs. You may also relay any concerns to Dean Pearce.