LORMAN, Miss. (WJTV) – Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation awarded Alcorn State university with a $10,000 grant to begin Tier 2 of the university’s efforts to ban the use of tobacco products on campus. The grant is designed to facilitate the development, implementation, and maintenance of a smoke-free campus. The total funding is $50,000 and is provided in three tiers.
“Under Tier 2, Alcorn will develop implementation, enforcement, and evaluation plans and will develop a communications plan designed to disseminate information and share the proponents and value of the adopted smoke-free polity to students, faculty, staff, and the campus community,” said Dr. Wanda Fleming, Assistant Vice President for Human Resources at Alcorn.
Fleming said that the funds will be used to provide education to the campus community on how to successfully stop the use of tobacco on campus.
Alcorn received $10,000 under Tier 1 in 2020 for a comprehensive tobacco-free policy aligned with the model policy for a tobacco-free college/university, as published by the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation (ANRF).
“The Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation is proud to partner with Alcorn State University to create a sustainable healthy campus culture,” said Sheila Grogan, Foundation President. “University and college campuses are ideal for promoting nicotine-free lifestyles to the benefit of everyone’s health, from students to personnel to visitors.”