The University of California is banning smoking and chewing tobacco on all of its ten campuses, and officials at U.C. San Diego played a major role in getting the new policy adopted.
The American Lung Association has been working with U.C. San Diego for years to get the campus to go smoke-free. Once school officials were convinced it could be done, they pitched the idea to the U.C. president's office.
Debra Kelley is with the American Lung Association. She said banning tobacco on college campuses is a big move.
"You know, if you look at UCSD alone, for example, they have over 30,000 students," Kelley pointed out. "That's the size of a small city. And so those students, faculty, visitors, will all have a completely smoke-free environment."
Kelley said each U.C. campus will make the transition in its own way, but all U.C. schools will go completely smoke-free by 2014.
