Universities and Tobacco: The Ties That Blind

Excerpted from The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society’s full online exhibit on universities and tobacco

Although more than 2,500 colleges and universities in the United States alone have become smoke-free campuses over the past 20 years (including nearly 2,200 that claim to have adopted entirely tobacco-free policies, according to Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights), progress in reducing cigarette, smokeless tobacco, and hookah use among U.S. university students has slowed. Cigarette smoking prevalence among college students may be as high as 25%.

Vaping (e-cigarette use) among college students is estimated to have the same prevalence. Globally, smoking prevalence among university students ranges from 14% in Brazil to 60% in Bangladesh. Coordinated strategies to diminish the influence of the tobacco industry in academia are lagging and require greater attention by medical and public health organizations.

This illustrated exhibition explores the history of smoking on college campuses and efforts to end it. A little-studied obstacle to reducing tobacco use among university students and to exercising leadership in public health has been the financial relationships between the tobacco industry and academia, such as the presence of cigarette manufacturers at campus job fairs and investments in tobacco companies by university endowments.

Smoking cigars and pipes was a popular pastime for college students throughout the 19th century and for much of the 20th century. “It Was My Last Cigar” was a favorite college song of the late-1800s. Part 1 of this exhibit features a copy of the first lecture delivered at an American medical school on the dangers of smoking, “On the Evil Tendency of Tobacco and the Pernicious Effects of Ardent and Vinous Spirits on Young Persons,” by Benjamin Waterhouse, MD, to the graduating class at Harvard Medical School on November 20, 1804. Dr. Waterhouse’s admonition was not heeded, as illustrated by the selection of cigar, cigarette, and smokeless advertisements aimed at college students over the ensuing 150 years.

Another highlight of this section is an interview with Elizabeth Crisp Crawford, author of the definitive book on the targeting of university students by cigarette marketers, Tobacco Goes To College: Cigarette Advertising in Student Media, 1920-1980.

Alan Blum, MD, director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, interviews Elizabeth Crisp Crawford, PhD:

Dr. Crawford serves on the faculty of Broadwell College of Business and Economics at Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, North Carolina.

There are approximately 5,300 colleges and universities in the United States, of which (as reported in 2020–2021) 1,892 are public institutions, 1,754 are private nonprofit institutions, and 2,270 are private for-profit institutions. According to Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR), as of January 1, 2025, there are at least 2,587 100% smokefree campus sites.

Thus, in spite of the progress in de-normalizing smoking in the US, the number of smoke-free campuses remains less than 50%. Much work remains. ANR’s leadership in this effort is unparalleled. Cynthia Hallett, a co-author of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) study, “Smoke-Free and Tobacco-Free Policies in Colleges and Universities ― United States and Territories, 2017”, serves as president and CEO of ANR. Laura Wolpert, JD, Senior Policy Analyst of the ANR Foundation and Heidi Wohlwend, ANR’s communications and donor relations specialist, provided invaluable assistance for this part of the exhibition.

The policies that ANR has worked ceaselessly to implement since 1976 represent more than protecting the majority of members of a university community from passive exposure to toxic and unpleasant tobacco in shared spaces. They also help reinforce the message that nicotine addiction no longer has a place in campus life and cannot be ignored. Then there is the environmental pollution from discarded cigarettes, vape pens, cartridges, and packaging. It’s also a matter of respect for those who maintain the buildings and outdoor areas. The risk of fire from discarded cigarettes and matches is another reason that a smoking ban contributes to public safety. Opponents point out that a complete smoking ban on a residential campus creates a personal safety issue for those who must venture off-campus at night to light up.

This part of the exhibition also looks at the history of smoking bans on two campuses: the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Alabama.