Ian Hinze, Campus Carrier Staff Reporter

Both the Health and Wellness Center and A New Year / A New You (ANY/ANY) will be providing resources and treatment for smokers on Berry campus starting in February, in preparation for the school-wide tobacco ban starting Aug. 1.

Tobacco cessation services for smokers on campus will begin in February and be a primary focus for the campus health initiative ANY/ANY, headed by director of recreation Michael McElveen, as well as for the peer educators in the Health and Wellness Center.

McElveen has been working on group courses, the first starting Feb. 9 and continuing for five weeks. McElveen, who has extensive training in tobacco addiction treatment and cessation, has been leading the effort to help students stop smoking, said senior Sara Gheesling, peer educator coordinator.

“We’re working right now with Michael McElveen and the ANY/ANY crew to get a feel for what students are going to need, what they’ll want from this program, and hone in on what Berry as a school and Berry administration can do to help students get what they need,” Gheesling said. “It’s in the developing process, it’s hard to hone in on exactly what Berry students need, because right now this is all a data collection experience.”

Peer educators work as both representatives for students and smoking cessation group leaders.

“Peer Educators are working specifically on… focus groups in which we target the issues students will be facing with smoking cessation,” Gheesling said. “It will be hard to quit [for some students and faculty]… for some people it can take years to quit smoking, for some people it takes a few weeks.”

Treatment and counseling resources have been in development since before the November announcement that Berry would be tobacco-free. Dean of students Debbie Heida, a primary supporter of the new policy, says the wellbeing of students comes first.

“What’s interesting about it is, what works with one person may or may not work with another to quit. It’s very individual,” Heida said. “We want to help connect students with [health services]…our faculty staff side that their insurance covers the patch, the same would be true for most of the insurance plans our students would be part of as well.”

Heida said she believes there’s more to helping make Berry tobacco-free than just removing the tobacco.