York University launches community-wide discussion about smoking on campus with survey

The following is a message to the York University community from Teresa DuCroix, director, Health, Safety and Employee Well-Being:

You may have seen that there is a growing trend for university and college campuses to go smoke-free. York University values the health, safety, and well-being of our community members and would like to begin a dialogue about smoking on campus. The vice-provost students (Health Education and Promotion) and vice-president, finance and administration (Health, Safety and Employee Well-Being) are partnering to begin this dialogue. The exploration will be a multi-year, consultative and iterative process.

Wednesday, Nov. 14 is the “1 Day Stand” spearheaded by Leave the Pack Behind and Toronto Public Health. York will be using this day to begin the discussion about smoking on campus. It is our hope to initiate transparent and open discussion with all community members to get your perspective on a smoke-free campus.

The first phase in this process is intended to collect baseline data from community members in the form of a short survey. Please take a few moments to share your views. Surveys will also be available in paper format in staff areas where computers aren’t in daily use. The paper surveys will be available for one day only, on Wednesday, Nov. 14. However, the electronic survey will be available until Monday, Nov. 26.

Thank you in advance for your valuable input. Feel free to contact me if you have questions or require any further clarification.