Pharmacy students Claire Hung and Habeeba Nizamdin, who ignited the Power to End Stroke program, deliver their speech to the audience explaining the pros of a smoke ban on campus. | Bethel Glumac/The Daily Cougar
UH is gearing up for the ban on tobacco use, á la the current policy at the University of Texas, Austin. UH’s adoption of the “Tobacco Free Campus” directive comes after the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas said it would stop funding research at universities that did not comply with its smoke free policies.
The University of Houston, in conjunction with the College of Pharmacy, is offering “Just Kick It!” a smoking cessation program headed by third year Pharmacy students Habeeba Nizamdin and Claire Hung, who held their first meeting September 18 in Agnes Arnold Hall 108.
Dr. Mary Rae, Chief Physician at the UH Health Center, was in attendance and was the evening’s guest speaker. She suggests that the Just Kick It! initiative is a natural offspring of the impending tobacco ban.
“We’ve been saying, ‘It’s okay; it’s okay,’ and suddenly it’s not okay anymore,” Rae said during her presentation to an audience of two.
“We have to provide a service to help them smokers quit.”
She said she knows why the ban is coming now.
“The CPRIT money is one reason this got started.”
There were two in attendance for the cessation meeting Tuesday: Jean Palmquist — a UH employee in the registrar’s office — and physics sophomore Johnathan Hakin. Both enthusiatically supported the anti-smoking mission of the presenters, and Palmquist especially was emphatic in her rhetoric.
“I hate feeling guilty all the time,” Palmquist said in reference to her desire to quit smoking.
Hakin, on the other hand, was more reserved about his ultimate plans but praised the presenters for their energy.
“These people seem to be passionate,” he said, gesturing towards Nizamdin and Hung.
Hung and Nizamdin have a long history of working with smoking cessation programs, as chairs of the Power to End Stroke program through the Student National Pharmaceutical Association. They implemented the “Beat the Pack” offered by Pfizer on campus last year, and this year they have implemented elements of that program along with their own experience and suggestions from former cessation students.
“Beat the Pack is how we started, but we have incorporated all the things we learned last year,” Hung said.
For their part in the tobacco-free movement, there is not much money to follow. Hung and Nizamdin are largely funding their meetings out of their own pocket.
“Our organization is not rich. We have to take funds out of our own budget,” Hung explained.
Their passion is obvious. Both presenters were energetic and enthusiastic in their presentation, and were optimistic about expansion of the Just Kick It! program.
“We’re hoping for as many as we can get,” Nizamdin said.
“When people are smoking, we are just going to go up to them and ask (if they’d like to enroll),” Hung said, regarding future recruitment efforts.
The next meeting will be 5:30 p.m. Oct. 2 in Agnes Arnold room 108, and all the presenters hope for a wider turnout.
“We’re all in this together,” Rae said.
