SIU to snuff out campus cigarette sales

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Cigarette sales at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will end next year, university officials said.

The Student Center, the only place on campus that sells cigarettes, will stop doing so next summer, part of a larger anti-smoking initiative on campus.

Next fall, smoking and the use of other tobacco products will be prohibited in residence halls, and smoking won't be allowed within 25 feet from campus building entrances. Previously, students could use tobacco products in designated areas in the residence halls.

The recent changes come out of a university effort to find ways to discourage smoking among students.

"Every study shows smoking and inhaling second-hand smoke are bad for people," said political science professor John Jackson, who led one committee to address campus smoking.

The end of cigarette sales will mean a loss for the Student Center, which took in $52,000 last year from the sales, said center director T.J. Rutherford.

He said services will suffer, and the center won't be able to afford as many student jobs if lost revenue isn't replaced.

But Jackson said curbing the smoking saves money. He said it costs $80,000 a year for workers to pick up cigarette butts on campus, and another $6,000 a month to clean out ashtrays in residence halls.

While smoking a cigarette outside the Student Center, Pavlos Evangelides, 24, a senior, said the sales ban won't deter him.

He said he usually buys cigarettes for $2 cheaper at gas stations.