Smoking on Campus

Smoking on Campus

For Mandie Sload, college and nicotine go hand in hand. A 20-year-old student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Sload never smoked in high school. She doesn’t smoke much over the summers but as soon as a new semester starts, she is back to four or five cigarettes a day. What is it about college life that lures her to smoke? Stress? Peer pressure? Smoking is an addiction. Tobacco contains nicotine, a drug that is addictive. Once you start smoking, it is very hard, but not impossible to quit. Until recently, I think smoking on college campuses was largely ignored. Alcohol is such a major issue in college that smoking takes a back seat. In the last few years, however, smoking has become a hot topic. One of the reasons for this increased importance is the recognition that the college years are crucial in making or breaking an addiction.

As a college student, I have seen first hand the prevalence of smoking. All across our campus, college students are lighting up at an alarming rate. In a campus survey I conducted of 15 college students in February 2002, eight students said they were current smokers. I surveyed eight males and seven females. My survey included 18 questions revealing gender, age, class, familial history of smoking, frequency of smoking, desire to quit, methods used to quit, awareness of hazards, etc. I surveyed several of my classmates in class, a few sorority sisters in our suite, and random students at the HUB.

Fifty-three percent of the individuals I surveyed smoke. Sixty-two percent of the students who smoke consider themselves “social smokers.” Eighty-seven percent of the smokers have tried to quit. The students who have tried to quit have used the cold turkey method and intake reduction by decreasing the number of cigarettes smoked in a week.

In addition to the surveys, I conducted three interviews of my roommates in my apartment, an interview of a student from the IUP branch campus at Punxsatawney, and a case study of my boyfriend, Jason Mavrich. Many of the students I interviewed reported the average age they tried their first cigarette was 15. Not surprisingly, I found that smoking is higher among students who have “a strong party orientation.” College students who are binge drinkers admit “I only smoke when I drink.