The Clark Student Center was buzzing with homecoming activities. In the atrium, the University Programming Board set up shop with a sundae bar that was attracting every student that walked by. Nestled next to the sundae bar was a booth for Peers Against Tobacco.
Taylor Offutt, health administration graduate student, said the organization started a year ago on campus but hopes to see growth.
“We started last year on campus, we are trying to build and become more public by getting on to more places on campus,” Offutt said.
Offutt said the goal of Peers Against Tobacco, based out of the University of Texas at Austin, is to bring awareness and help end the epidemic of smoking on and off campus. While the campus is tobacco free, Offutt said students are starting to look at other alternatives.
“Most people are leaving tobacco and switching to vaping, but vaping is still smoking,” Offutt said.
Kaytlyn Boyett, art senior, understands that while vaping may be an alternative to smoking for those that want to slowly quit it is still not a healthier alternative to smoking. Boyett said while even though vaping only has nicotine and no other harmful substances, it’s the nicotine itself that makes it hard to quit smoking in the first place.
“So although it’s portrayed as a healthier option and a hip new trend, it’s just as addictive and just as destructive in that sense,” Boyett said.
Advertisement of vaping as a healthier alternative is not true to its nature, according to Boyett. Along with Peers Against Tobacco, Boyett said these “alternatives” need to be advertised in the same light as smoking since they are essentially the same thing.
“It may be considered healthier, but it’s not healthy and it’s not being advertised as it should be,” Boyett said.
Jordyn Gomez, criminal justice freshman, said smoking in itself is bad and finding healthier alternatives could be a lost cause.
“So over all, it’s a lost cause, it’s the way people choose to live,” Gomez said. “If they want to die that way, then have at it.”
MORE INFORMATION: PEERS AGAINST TOBACCO
