HARTFORD — Today, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, released the following statement after Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) announced a campus-wide policy that prohibits smoking and tobacco use on the university’s property. SCSU President Mary A. Papazian announced the decision as a direct response to a letter she received from Murphy last year, in which Murphy encouraged college presidents across Connecticut to join the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Tobacco-Free College Campus initiative and reduce rates of tobacco-related disease. 

“As a longtime advocate of reducing smoking in public places, I applaud Southern Connecticut State University for joining more than 1,000 colleges across the nation and deciding to go tobacco-free,” said Murphy. “Plain and simple, going tobacco- and smoke-free is one of the best ways a campus can help improve the health of its students and faculty. I will do whatever I can to help SCSU make this transition as smooth as possible, and I encourage all of Connecticut’s colleges and universities to join them in this commonsense effort.”

As a member of the Connecticut General Assembly, Murphy introduced and helped pass the state’s Clean Indoor Air Act, which prohibits smoking in workplaces with five or more employees and in restaurants and bars across the state.