At 12:00 pm on March 18th, Trinity officially became fully tobacco and vape-free. Trinity was already a tobacco-free campus, and the new policy includes vapes in the ban.
At 1:00 pm, an event was held to celebrate the policy where students were invited to hit a vape piñata to win a free T-Ball ticket.
The event was attended by Trinity Health Staff and 21 students, who lined up to win the ticket. The piñata was filled with bike lights, and the winner was determined once they all fell out. The 14th contender, Sude Kısa, won the prize.
The policy applies to both students and staff. People will be prohibited from smoking or vaping indoors on campus and outdoors, except in designated smoking or vaping areas.
The policy was announced on February 18th in a press release from Trinity, which said, “Thank you to those who no longer smoke on campus or who use the smoking areas. Your consideration means fresh air and a clean campus for all.”
The policy was requested under Trinity’s Sustainability Strategy, which observed “very high e-cigarette use on campus”.
Trinity also noted that they are tackling vaping and smoking on campus through their free weekly stop smoking/vaping course in partnership with the HSE, incorporating nicotine control into Trinity’s curriculum, and Trinity’s Commercial Determinants of Health Lab, which is making submissions to the government to request stronger legislation on the issue.
Trinity also thanked Estates and Facilities for “deal[ing]with cigarette butts and vape waste on campus, as well as the members of the community who put up posters, signs and remind people to respect the tobacco-free campus policy”.
Trinity’s Healthy Campus Manager, Martina Mullin, in a conversation with The Journal, said there are student ambassadors that do rounds on campus to remind people of the smoke-free, and now vape-free policy. She said there have been over 500 face-to-face interventions where students have “looked people in the face” and reminded them of the smoke-free policy. Mullin added, “It’s hard when you’re 20 to walk up to a group of people, but we’ve never had a problem and our students are trained to never get into an argument and only to ever do what they feel comfortable with.” She also called vaping prevalence “really high”, and noted that vaping is happening in the library and during lectures. Their 2023 survey found that 57% vaped at least once and 31% currently vape.
Speaking to the University Times, Mullin said the policy would be “tricky” to implement, and while it was “not perfect”, she said it sent “the right message”.
Dr Judith Meehan from Trinity Health added that it was a “big day for the university to take the lead”, saying she was “really proud to be a part of the school initiative to be vape free”. Meehan added that she hopes the policy “makes people think”.
