Eye on Success

The Great American Smokeout was a wonderful success and the perfect way to end the semester. We passed out promotional materials to at least 1000 students as well as received a great deal of coverage from the Collegio. In fact, they did a question and answer session with me that I feel made great strides in promoting our message and making it more clear. I was able to effectively relay our motivations behind making our campus tobacco free in a biased free environment. In addition, the survey on GUS received feedback from over 500 students. The results will be distributed to me tomorrow and I will surely update everyone on the findings.

There is still much to do next semester. Gorillas in Your Midst will continue their promotional efforts while SGA will be spending our time drafting a fully comprehensive policy for students to vote on in April 2012. I will continue to keep everyone up to date on the policy drafting process as it goes along. Our goal is to have a policy ready for SGA to approve by March 1st to give them all the time they need to evaluate and make adjustments that they feel are necessary. Hopefully by this time next semester, we will be in the beginning stages of implementing our policy and by Fall 2012, we will be a tobacco free campus stating our claim as a student body that truly value the health of ourselves and those around us. Until next time, breath easy all.

Going Strong...

The campaign is beginning to spark an abundance of publicity, and I would not have it any other way. Just yesterday, I did two interviews for separate stories for the Collegio that will be out this Thursday. In addition, the Great American Smokout is tomorrow in the oval beginning at 12:30. Gorillas in Your Mist have been putting together a fabulous set of features for tomorrow's event that include Quit Kits to help students quit smoking as well as Via Christi Hospital will be there to support our cause. As some of you may know, Via Christi recently made the decision to ban tobacco use anywhere on their property as part of the state law barring tobacco use in any public place.

I hope everyone will come out and celebrate tomorrow in the oval, regardless of your views on a tobacco free campus. More than to commemorate our cause, the Great American Smokeout is about prolonging life and creating awareness of the real harms of tobacco use and not just on the user, but on those around that have made the conscious choice to not be a tobacco user.

To conclude, I want to take this time to announce a survey Student Government is conducting on student's view of tobacco use on campus. The survey can accessed via your GUS account. Just scroll down to the ballots and surveys and link and from there you can access the survey. We would greatly appreciate all the feedback possible in order to better understand not only how students feel about the issue, but also IF students are aware of the campaign to go tobacco free. All in all, I believe we are going strong into the end of the semester and we plan to continue on into the spring with more outreach programs where students can come voice their opinion ask questions as well as a policy committee that's sole duty will be to author a fully comprehensive tobacco free policy that students will have a chance to vote on in April of 2012 in the Student Government Association elections. Until next time, breath easy all, and come out tomorrow at 12:30pm to celebrate the Great American Smokeout.....rumor as it there will be hotdogs....

Campaign Update

Sorry for the delay in posting an update to the campaign to make our campus tobacco free. Things have been developing over the last few weeks and we are proudly and anxiously awaiting November 17th which is the Great American Smokeout. Student Government and Gorillas in Your Midst have a wonderful event planned for that day to encourage students to quit using tobacco and to promote our tobacco free cause. Students will have the opportunity to talk to SGA members about what we are doing to make this happen as well as talk to Gorillas in Your Midst students about resource that are out there to help someone quit using tobacco as well as the devastating effects tobacco can have on your health and those that are exposed to secondhand smoke

In addition, we have been granted access to use the GUS system for a survey that will be available for students to fill out starting this Monday, November 14th and will continue to be avaiable through Friday, November 18th. This survey is not only met to gauge student interest on this issue, but we also want to find out if students are simply hearing about the issue. Are students aware this is going on is the major question we want to answer then we want to know how students are hearing about this ongoing campaign. Good things are happening and the Great American Smokeout is right around the corner, so come out, get a free hot dog and quit kit from us in the oval and help support our green, healthy, new tradition.

Update

Hello all. The Tobacco Free Initiative committee has been working vigorously to promote the Great American Smokeout that will be held in the oval on November 17th, 2011. Make PSU Tobacco Free, our recently developed Facebook page, is gaining support by the day with over 200 people "liking" the page in the first week. I have been meeting with several members of Gorillas in Your Midst to iron out the events of the Great American Smokeout and create a message strategy to effectively gain the support of the student body.I submitted a resolution the Senators of the Student Government Association that would proclaim November 17th Great American Smokeout Day. It will be up for second reading when we come back from fall break and I do not anticipate any opposition. Over the next week, my committee and I will be compiling a fact sheet to distribute to each student organization that will explain our stance towards tobacco use on campus and our motivations for taking up this campaign. It is extremely important that students understand that we are not trying to be oppressive, but progressive. We are not condemning anyone's individual lifestyle. But we have to consider the well being of every student on campus and we have to be open to change and progress. I contend full heartily that this is the most progressive move we could make as students on this campus and it is a change that will benefit everyone. Until next time, breath easy everyone.

Kansas Health Foundation

The Kansas Health Foundation is dedicated to promoting the health and wellness of all Kansans. They are committed to their six focus areas:

• Promoting the healthy behaviors of Kansans
• Strengthening the public health system
• Improving access to health care for Kansas children
• Growing community philanthropy
• Providing health data and information to policymakers
• Building civic leadership 

We are looking to solicit the support of this wonderful organization in our campaign.  Our values and motivations for taking on this initiative are well in line with the ideals of this group. Please check our their website at the above link to learn more about their other health initiatives aimed at keeping Kansans healthy.

Wednesday September 14th, 2011

The campaign is beginning to come together quite nicely from an organizational aspect. The committee representing Student Government has been finalized and we will begin collaborating with the premier health and wellness organization on campus, Gorillas in Your Midst. A Public Service Announcement is cycling through many communication avenues such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and I am currently conducting an in depth analysis of the demographics of the students of the university to better cater the message to their needs. Overall, we want all of our constituents to know that we intend on conducting this campaign in a thorough manner and will strive to hear out all opinions on the matter. Until next time, breath easy folks.

Thomas Gregory

Tobacco Free Campus Campaign Post 1

The intent of this blog is to document Student Government's campaign to make Pittsburg State a tobacco free campus and inform everyone of how we plan to achieve this goal. We have started this campaign in an effort to make our students healthier, clean up our campus, and improve the marketability of this wonderful institution. Myself and others from your Student Government have been brainstorming a number of ways to market this campaign as well as provide avenues for students to voice their opinion on this issue. It should be noted that this shift in opinion towards tobacco on campus is not an isolated issue. Campus's all over the nation are moving towards this dramatic change and it seems as though this change is inevitable. That is why we have decided to take on the responsibility of promoting this cause because this is an issue that will effect students most and the decision should be made by the students, on their time. So far, we have drafted a public service announcement and are in the works of developing a logo that will mark this historic change and will be recognizable as the symbol of change in health on our campus. Feel free to check back here anytime for updates and discussions about this issue as I will be using this to receive feedback on our endeavor. click here for an article discussing major universities that have gone smoke free