KJZZ is a service of Rio Salado College,
and Maricopa Community Colleges

Copyright © 2025 KJZZ/Rio Salado College/MCCCD
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

NAU May Ban Tobacco Products On Campus

Northern Arizona University wants to ban tobacco products on campus. A survey showed students were concerned about second-hand smoke.

Caitlin Phillips is the Student Health Advocacy Committee’s tobacco initiative leader. She said her group studied other universities’ smoke free and tobacco free policies. They determined that a tobacco free policy would cover all their bases.

"What we found there’s no gray area, there’s no confusion about what you are or are not allowed to use. There’s just a blanket ban is kind of the most effective. It’s very blank and white, no one is confused if they’re allowed to hookah, or e-cigarettes or if they’re allowed in a certain area," Phillips said. "It seems across the nation to be most effective because of that."

Phillips said the ban will include cigarettes, chew, cigars, hookahs, pipes and e-cigarettes. She hopes the ban will go into effect by the fall of 2016.

KJZZ senior field correspondent Kathy Ritchie has 20 years of experience reporting and writing stories for national and local media outlets — nearly a decade of it has been spent in public media.