Dear Colleagues,

To strengthen our commitment to promoting healthy lifestyles for our campus community, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will become 100 percent smoke and tobacco-free beginning August 2019. The new effort builds upon the smoke-free policy that was successfully implemented in 2014, banning the use of all smoke-producing tobacco products on campus.

The new policy will apply to everyone – students, faculty, students and visitors. It will include all forms of tobacco, including but not limited to chewing tobacco, snuff, snus and dissolvable forms such as orbs and strips. Vaping devices such as e-cigarettes and juules will also be prohibited. The banned locations will include all campus-owned property – indoors and outdoors – as well as private vehicles parked on campus-owned property. 

The campus has established a tobacco-free campus task force to ensure the policy will be communicated clearly and implemented effectively. This committee consists of a diverse group of faculty, staff and students from across campus.

In addition, Campus Wellbeing Services will be conducting focus groups to obtain input from various campus stakeholders. The committee, in partnership with Campus Wellbeing Services, is also working to put together a series of materials to help address any questions or concerns. I encourage you to utilize the feedback form and visit the Smoke-Free Campus website often as information will be added in the coming months.

To help faculty, staff and students adapt to the new policy, the campus will continue offering a variety of tobacco-cessation programs through McKinley Health Center and Campus Wellbeing Services.

I ask everyone to respect our new policy to create a healthy environment for our entire campus community.

Sincerely,

Robert J. Jones
Chancellor