Let's CU Quit: a Tobacco-Free College Initiative Targets Concord University

By: Grace Watson | December 4, 2021

Let’s CU Quit is Concord University’s Tobacco-Free College Initiative (TFGCI), which is in a partnership with the American Cancer Society, CVS Health, and The Truth Initiative. The mission of the initiative set up by Christopher Smallwood, the Project Lead, Task Force Chair, and Assessment Committee Chair is to build a healthier community by reducing one of the leading causes of preventable death in the United States: smoking and tobacco use. To implement the program on Concord University’s campus, students and faculty must change the culture surrounding tobacco products as well as vaping. The TFGCI hopes to have a 100% smoke and tobacco-free campus by 2020.

Student involvement will take center stage through the use of the Student Peer Group. The Student Peer Group and Ambassador Program are led by Carly Lee who has planned many events, such as CU Kick Butts Day, Tackle Tobacco, Lick it to Quit, and the Great American Smoke Out. While Christopher Smallwood is passionate about his work in a student-run organization with nearly 15 years of experience and quit smoking 12 years ago, he is only a small part of the great scheme of things; he is “the ringleader of the circus” if you will. However, the focus has been on students helping students, this Smallwood believes will help change the attitude and culture around smoking that is present on campus.

This initiative is crucial to implement on all college campuses, especially in the state of West Virginia, which received an estimated $332 million in tobacco settlement payments and taxes in the 2018 fiscal year. However, There were zero dollars allocated to West Virginia’s state funds for tobacco prevention in 2018. Another reason to fulfill the 100% smoke and tobacco-use free requirement is that smoking-related illnesses are the number one cause of preventable death in the United States; in the United States alone, there are 480,000 deaths from cigarette smoking and an additional 41,000 deaths caused by secondhand smoke.

This initiative will not only result in a 100% smoke-free campus, and lead to individuals quitting smoke/vaping and tobacco products, such as cigarettes and Juuls, but will protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke. If Concord University’s 100% smoke and tobacco-free campus initiative are successful, it could result in higher numbers of students who participate in intramurals resulting in a healthier, more engaged campus. The reason why to implement this initiative is to bring an end to the vaping epidemic on campus, protect students’ health, and helped students quit smoking/vaping and tobacco products.

Concord University received $8,000 dollars through the grant, so far, Christopher Smallwood has put that money towards promotional items and advertisements, such as t-shirts and water bottles and a logo that was designed by a Concord University student, Victoria Wood. Since it is the students that will, hopefully, and ultimately, change the attitude around the tobacco and vaping culture, Smallwood is putting most of his work into the students’ hands, for instance, Carly Lee, the Student Peer Group Leader, acts as a spokesperson for the program, which goes towards work-study.

To the question: how does Concord University plan to implement the “Let’s CU Quit” initiative by 2020? Smallwood, the Project Lead, suggests against a punitive policy and advocates for the students’ voices to be heard in the policy-making process and believes 100% that students can build better relationships and change the attitude and culture around smoking and vaping.

Overall, the “Let’s CU Quit” relies on student involvement to make the program successful. Student involvement will not only change the culture around smoking/vaping and tobacco products, but Concord University could be 100% smoke and tobacco-free by 2020.

*This article was written for MCOM 420: SpTop - Mobile Reporting, as a hard news story.