UBreathe Free, the campus-wide tobacco prohibition that went into effect in Aug. 2009, is now in full force after a yearlong "transition period."
The transition period allowed smoking in the parking lots that were over 100 feet from buildings. Now you must take your nicotine off-campus to inhale it.
So for somebody on North Campus, the Marriott Hotel on Millersport Highway or the Sweet Home Apartments are the closest smoking destinations.
But what happens to those who violate this new policy? That's not so clear.
And that's the problem.
Supporters of the UBreathe Free policy have experienced trouble enforcing it because of an inability to establish a punishment system that would apply to all offenders. Many of the employees at UB are members of powerful unions that would not respond kindly to any sort of tobacco-based punishment.
Students, meanwhile, would be referred to the Office of Judicial Affairs, where community service sentences are often handed out.
The official Smoke-Free Policy states that employees who violate the policy will be "addressed through educational and corrective measures" or "referred to the appropriate department head." In other words, if the employee's union doesn't block the whole punishment altogether, the employee might receive a slap on the wrist from his or her boss (assuming the boss doesn't smoke).
The obvious double standard between students and employees makes the policy impossible to enforce adequately. The question of how to punish an offending visitor makes enforcement even trickier.
UB has looked bad with the trickiness of the policy as many students and employees continue to smoke freely on campus. The only difference now is that the ashtrays and receptacles have been removed, so smokers simply throw their cigarette butts on the ground.
The good news for smokers is that CVS, conveniently located in the UB Commons near the bookstore, still sells cigarettes and other tobacco products.
We all know that smoking is not good for one's health and we all know that secondhand smoke can be harmful and uncomfortable. However, expecting smokers to kick the habit immediately and resist the addiction to nicotine is extremely unrealistic. Supporters of the policy often throw around the word "respect" in regards to non-smokers, but we feel that the policy leaves smokers unaccounted for as a large portion of this community.
The least the university could do is set up designated smoking areas around its three campuses. That way, those wishing to avoid secondhand smoke would stay away from these areas.
Maybe the supporters of the policy, unable to enforce it anyway, could simply change the UBreathe Free stickers around campus to say what they really mean: "Please don't smoke."
