Changing tobacco policy on campus through transdisciplinary service learning

A successful transdisciplinary approach achieving complementary goals of changing campus tobacco policy and enhancing student engagement through service learning methodology is presented. Students in a health programming course self-selected to partner with public health, campus health, university staff and faculty to implement a tobacco ban on the University of Idaho campus. Two semester long course content mirrored public health approaches to implementing campus tobacco bans, including survey development, statistically significant sampling, tobacco policy education, marketing and promotion, and strategic education of key university leaders on tobacco policy implementation. Course objectives to utilize multiple social media strategies, develop social marketing materials, including a website were developed to advance tobacco policy change and increase student skills. Pedagogical approaches learned in the course empowered students to develop educational forums and presentations on tobacco policy for high level University officials. Students worked effectively with multiple stakeholders inside and outside of the University and gained important team communication skills as assessed in course assignments and journals. Integrating tobacco policy into a service learning course is an effective method of engaging students in public health practices as well as gaining increased and needed support for changes in campus tobacco policy.