The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: Recently, fraternities have been uniquely targeted by the tobacco industry. California State University, Chico fraternities are a prime example of this, as the tobacco industry has proliferated sponsorships of local fraternity events. Without policies prohibiting tobacco sponsorships, fraternities will increasingly be used as a means for tobacco promotion. Our goal was to work with 1-3 fraternities at CSU, Chico to adopt a policy prohibiting the acceptance of tobacco sponsorships for fraternal events.

Methods: A survey, developed by our evaluation consultant, and conducted by our fraternity liaison, assessed fraternity officers' attitudes regarding various aspects of tobacco use, promotion and sponsorship. Our liaison then presented information and an education piece at an Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC) meeting about tobacco industry targeting of fraternities. He then encouraged the adoption and implementation of a policy to prohibit future tobacco industry sponsorship of fraternal events. A one-time, $500 stipend was offered to those fraternities who adopted the policy. The fraternity liaison assisted in developing the actual policy language and recommended appropriate steps to take to ensure the policy was instituted into fraternity regulations and properly implemented. Signed policies were collected from each participating fraternity. Thank you ads were placed in campus newspapers and letters of appreciation were sent to the national office of each fraternity that signed the policy.

Results: Our project worked within the fraternity structure and with fraternity leadership to build capacity for tobacco sponsorship policy development. That relationship led to the top seven fraternities on campus signing the sponsorship policy.