Northern Kentucky University to go tobacco-free

The Northern Kentucky University Board of Regents voted unanimously Wednesday to make the campus the third public university to go tobacco-free.

The board authorized NKU President Dr. Geoffrey Means to appoint a Tobacco-Free Campus Task Force to determine how to make the transition over the next 18 months.

Means said in a statement that move is meant to ensure that the campus environment is clean, healthy and safe for all.

“NKU has been consistently recognized for its commitment to health and wellness,” Means said. “Today we begin the next step toward improving our campus atmosphere. Our goal is to provide a healthy environment for our students and, in turn, a healthy workforce for local employers.”

NKU began restricting campus smoking to designated smoking areas in 2006.

Nationally, 1,130 US colleges and universities have smoke or tobacco-free policies in place.

NKU is the third Kentucky public university to implement a tobacco-fee policy, following the University of Kentucky in 2009 and Morehead State University that did so in 2011. The University of Louisville is a smoke-free campus.

This comes as health advocates make another pitch to lawmakers to pass a smoke-free law across Kentucky, making it illegal to smoke in restaurants and most work-places.