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iponegoro University (Undip) in Semarang, Central Java, is set to facilitate the creation of smoke-free campuses in 11 privately run universities in the city, a university official said Tuesday.

Undip’s School of Public Health Dean Tinuk Istiarti said that the school would act as a facilitator for the program.

“Facilitation is given in the form of supervision in the creation of smoke-free areas, smoking chambers and stop-smoking counseling within the participating campuses,” Tinuk said at her office in Tembalang.

The 11 participating universities are Semarang University (USM), Dian Nuswantoro University, IKIP PGRI, Unisbank, STIE BPD, STIE Dharmaputra, Wahid Hasyim University, Semarang Muhammadyah University, Akpelni, STIMART AMNI and Stikes Karya Husadha.

Tinuk said that smoke-free areas within the campuses would include lecturing classrooms, rector rooms, lecturers’ rooms, student activity rooms, laboratories, libraries, administrative staff rooms, worship rooms, canteens, studying rooms and public rooms. “We have supervised 20 universities across Central Java in 2010 and 2011. Now we have 11 universities to supervise,” she said.

Separately, the initiator of the program, Suyatno, who is also a lecturer at the Undip’s School of Public Health, said that the commitment to create smoke-free campuses was a response to the increasing number of people smoking in Indonesia each year.

He said that since 1995 up to now the number of people smoking in the country had increased from 34.7 million to 65 million.

Prevalence of youth smoking, similarly, is also not any less concerning. In 1995 only seven percent of teenagers were smoking, the figure is presently 19 percent.

Unlike in high schools where students mostly play hide-and-seek when smoking, university students do so openly on their campuses.

Suyatno also said that the program was basically conducted to provide respect for the individual rights of both parties: those who smoke and those who don’t.

The program also aims to prevent the emergence of new smokers, to avoid the dangers of smoke, to eliminate the campuses’ dependence on cigarette producers and to encourage people to quit smoking.

“Supervision is given by creating smoke-free areas and providing stop-smoking clinics and smoking chambers on campuses,” he said.

Highlighting the role of counselors in the success of smoke-free campuses, Suyatno said with the program, active smokers were obliged to smoke only in the prepared smoking chambers on campus so that non-smokers could continue their activities free of smoke.

“The program will also ban the participating campuses from engaging in cigarette promotion activities, including advertisements and sponsorship programs,” Suyatno said.s smoke-free