Public Events

Relevant Objectives:

Objective 1: Use news media, social media, signage, event planning and anything other campus-wide means to publicize the tobacco-free campus policy and affirm it is in effect.

Objective 2: Use news media, social media and event planning to promote a supportive atmosphere for people who need to quit tobacco use because of the tobacco-free policy, and let the campus community know there are cessation resources on campus.

Objective 3: Use news media, social media, event planning and any other means to educate the campus community the importance of their enforcement efforts concerning the tobacco-free policy.

Summary

I planned a one-year anniversary of the tobacco-free campus policy event. The actual anniversary is November 22, which was a Saturday this year. I chose to have the event on Wednesday, November 19, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. I consulted with student government advisors and event planners and was told Wednesdays had the most student traffic. Also, I was able to set up my booth and prop at the hypnotist event put on by student government later that night.

I was able to network with the Health and Wellness Center, the Southwest Utah Public Health Department, student senate, and student life while planning this event. The Health and Wellness Center was in charge of promoting the Great American SmokeOut, SUPHD was in charge of bringing cessation resources, student senate funded my prop and the iPad Mini, and student life let me set up at the hypnotist event and continue the one-year anniversary.

Here are some pictures of the event. Artifacts A and C were taken while we were setting up and Artifact B was while the event was in progress.

Artifact A

Artifact B

Artifact C

At my section of the event I had a banner that clearly communicates the Tobacco-free campus policy one-year anniversary, which goes along with objective 1. The prop I was standing behind was made to have people take pictures behind the X to show they are in favor of providing a supportive campus for people who need to quit using tobacco on campus, which is objective 2. 

In Artifact C, I didn't have my papers posted on my table yet, but I had the full tobacco-free campus policy available and this literature posted on the table.

Artifact D

Artifact E

Artifact F

Artifact G

The purpose of Artifact D was to educate the campus community the importance of requesting compliance from policy violators, which is objective 3. Artifact E was to give background on where the idea for the big X came from. Artifact F explains the purpose of the X prop and also gives some fun facts. Artifact G explained the competition that was held and made into flyers.

The competition held had a couple of flaws. First, the original instructions on the 3rd bullet of Artifact G was changed to say, "post photo to your Facebook page and tag DSU Tobacco-free Campus." Edits were made with a marker. That was within the first hour of the event and didn't cause many problems. If I could redo the competition I would take out the part where they needed to get likes, and would have entered them in a raffle if they did the first three steps. This would have made explaining the competition rules much more easy and given me more time to explain the purpose of taking the picture. Also, I believe I would have gotten more participation because there seemed to be countless times people were put off by needed to get likes because they didn't think they had enough Facebook friends or something to that effect.

On a good note, the event attracted a lot of people and felt like a success. At the hypnotist event, I was able to give an announcement about the anniversary before the show, and the hypnotist, who usually gives some sort of anti-drug message, agreed to say some positive things about the policy.