Background

The ETU Virginia initiative grew out of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Cancer Center’s attendance at the 2018 Texas Eliminate Tobacco Use Summit. VCU approached the University of Virginia Cancer Center to join in their efforts to replicate a summit in Virginia. The first ETU Virginia summit in spring 2019 hosted almost 100 attendees from 18 Virginia colleges and universities and two out-of-state universities.

The ETU Virginia Summit 2021 brought together over 60 institutions and organizations from across the state and focused on providing colleges and universities with best practices in developing tobacco free policies. Presenters, who were all at different points in the policy making process, shared frameworks for building a successful work group, ideas for how to change attitudes around tobacco free policies, and post-policy adoption.

In 2023, ETU Virginia hosted 30 people in-person in Charlottesville, Virginia the week before the National Summit on April 21st. This summit was a workshop style gathering that highlighted the importance of campus and community organizing to achieve a comprehensive tobacco-free campus policy and increase tobacco treatment and cessation efforts.