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Nearly four years ago, Penn began the process of examining the tobacco habits of members of the University community and the policy surrounding its use, with the goal of moving to an entirely tobacco-free campus. Recent developments include the installation of “No Smoking” signs, as well as the removal of many cigarette urns near building entrances.

It has been a gradual, phased progression to incorporate a Tobacco-Free Campus Policy, which was officially updated in October, prohibiting smoking and tobacco use not only inside of buildings and facilities, but also outside of them—on Locust Walk, College Green, and Shoemaker Green, and other paths, fields, stadiums, and parking lots on campus.

In addition, where Penn buildings are adjacent to public sidewalks or streets, smoking and the use of other tobacco products is prohibited within 20 feet of the buildings’ entrances.

“We’re in the business of preparing young people for careers, job readiness, critical thinking, independence, and self-determination—and tobacco use undermines those things,” explains Frank Leone, who chairs Penn’s campus-wide tobacco-free committee. “We feel strongly that as a university, we have a couple roles in the community, and one is that it’s important to model responsible behavior.”

While it’s significant to impart these values, Leone adds how vital it has been to build this transformation in a way that’s still respectful.

“If you think about the nature of traditional approaches to creating tobacco-free spaces, they are in their DNA an adversarial approach,” says Leone, also director of the Comprehensive Smoking Treatment Program and an associate professor at the Perelman School of Medicine. “We felt strongly up front that we didn’t want that.”

That’s why Penn has taken a community approach to going tobacco-free, hence its “Tobacco-Free Together” slogan.

Diverse steps have been taken to educate the community about the new tobacco-free policy—whether at New Student Orientation, in the Division of Human Resources (HR) mailings, or through signage around campus—as well as the reasons for being tobacco-free that go far beyond health.

There’s also been increased support for smokers trying to quit. Sue Sproat, who leads HR’s Benefits Department, says Penn not only offers the Comprehensive Smoking Treatment Program, a clinical program available to faculty and staff, but also provides programs and resources through Penn’s medical plans and StayWell’s Tobacco Cessation Coaching Program. StayWell, Penn’s wellness portal partner, offers combined personal coaching over the phone and up to 12 weeks of free nicotine replacement therapy. (Participants are also eligible for “Bonus Action” points in the University’s yearly Be in the Know campaign.)

Ashlee Halbritter, director of Campus Health, and her team have taken a similar resource approach for students trying to quit. For instance, WholeBreath counseling at Student Health Service is available on a free and unlimited basis to all full-time, dissertation, and exchange students.

Eliminating environmental cues for smokers, such as smoking poles or cigarette urns, has been a major change, too. That decision was prompted after a pilot study showed how the urns actually promoted smoking as well as caused more cigarette butt litter in the area, Leone says.

Related studies, as well as Penn’s tobacco-free campus communication campaign, which rolled out just in time this year for the nationwide Great American Smokeout, has been supported by a $20,000 grant from the American Cancer Society and CVS Health, which in 2016 named Penn one of 20 colleges in its Tobacco-Free Generation Campus Initiative.

Penn will likely have more communication campaigns in the future, says Sproat, understanding that this culture shift “is going to take time.

“We are looking to be evolutionary,” she says, “rather than revolutionary.”