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OSU Prez Gee Wants Smoke-Free Campus

Updated: Friday, March 8 2013, 07:47 PM EST
COLUMBUS- The Ohio State University is being asked to go smoke free.

OSU President E. Gordon Gee will ask trustees in April to ban smoking and the use of other tobacco products throughout campus by August 1st, 2013. 

Gee sent an email to students, faculty and staff this morning, saying the university had met with 26 groups representing faculty, staff, students and adjacent neighborhoods.  The group received feedback through emails and community forums.

“The majority of the feedback supported a tobacco free campus and helped shape our current proposal,” Gee said in the letter.  He went on to say “ We also will appoint a broadly represented committee to develop an implementation plan and submit a resolution to the Board of Trustees in April to request authority to revise the university's current smoke free policy.”

Gee ends the letter by saying “Know that your health is at the heart of this initiative. It is our intent to become the healthiest campus in the nation, and this is a vital step forward in that direction.”

OSU Wexner Medical Center and surrounding health science campuses have been tobacco free since 2006, and the buildings on the campuses have been smoke free since 1987.

ABC 6/FOX 28 has requested an interview with a university leader to clarify the proposed policy; we have yet to hear back.

More information is available here:  http://hr.osu.edu/tobaccofree/index.aspx

Questions or suggestions about the proposed policy can be submitted here:   TobaccoFree@hr.osu.edu

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Reporter: Terri Sullivan
Web Producer: Kellie HannaOSU Prez Gee Wants Smoke-Free Campus