UTTC goes tobacco free

By Hannah Johnson
BISMARCK, N.D. _ United Tribes Technical College will become a tobacco-free campus starting Jan. 1.
Both the University of Mary and Bismarck State College have already gone tobacco-free. United Tribes is the first tribal college in the state to do so.
The policy was spearheaded by the Wellness Circle, a group at UTTC that identifies ways to improve campus health and wellness.
“Our Wellness Circle knew this was the right thing to do,” said Pat Aune, the group facilitator.
The group wanted the policy for several years, Aune said, but it takes time to get the community on board.
“It takes a long time to bring the whole community along on such a big change,” she said.
Now, she said, the community is mostly very supportive.
She expects some resistance and knows the policy would be difficult to enforce, with some people likely continuing to use tobacco just outside campus boundaries.
“We know that some of that will happen, but we don’t want to make it easy,” Aune said.
Still, she said, the new policy may be the push many need to quit smoking, or using tobacco.
The campus plans to offer cessation classes and the policy will be printed in the student and employee handbooks.
The signing ceremony for the policy will happen at 10:15 a.m. Thursday in the college’s Wellness Center multipurpose room.
The policy will go into effect Jan. 1 — “new year, new policy,” Aune said.
Hopefully, she said, United Tribes can be an example to other tribal colleges in the state.
Native Americans have a higher than average rate of tobacco use, Aune said, and the new policy is just one step toward reducing that statistic.
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/education/uttc-goes-tobacco-free/article_db3e09f4-515c-11e3-bf61-001a4bcf887a.html