Smoking is absolutely prohibited on the DU campus. At least, that’s what those little stickers everywhere say, though I’ve never actually heard a real person denounce smoking on campus.
Officially, our campus is smoke-free, but the accepted practice is to simply smoke on the outskirts of campus or by a building entrance.
Ironically, smoking within 15 feet of an entrance is illegal by Colorado law; however, individuals seem comfortable breaking both laws. I see smokers with cigarettes outside almost every building I go into; the only thing I don’t see is a smoker lounging in the center of an open space, such as the Driscoll Green.
I see students’ behavior as brazenly disobeying a university policy. I’m even guilty of this, having fallen into the habit of smoking outside Centennial Halls, Sturm Hall and DCB. But I’m not the only one; Campus Safety officers are equally guilty.
The punishments for being caught smoking on campus are vague and termed “disciplinary action,” perhaps the equivalent of a traffic violation or maybe a lecture educating students about the evils of smoke.
The Smoke-Free policy website frames the enforcement of the policy as being heavily dependent on tips from witnesses, rather than citation from campus safety or some sort of “smoke-free” task force.
The policy is about more than merely seeing no cigarettes on campus; they have an overarching goal of helping students be healthier and offer counseling and support to help smokers quit.
But the university needs to go about it in a different way; they must present options for help while still allowing freedom of choice.
I support DU’s right to maintain the campus how they like, and am in no way of the opinion that the policy is a constitutional breach. The main problem with DU’s smoke-free policy is that it isn’t enforced and therefore seems pointless.
Most passersby don’t even glance at me while I’m smoking and are certainly not reporting me. And I almost never see a Campus Safety officer around. Enforcement falls short of the vision of the policy. Perhaps a more apt policy would be a “Cigarette-butt-free” campus. The focus would be shifted from not smoking to not desecrating our beautiful campus with ugly cigarette butts.
I am personally offended whenever I see littering and especially when students do it at their own university. It is irresponsible and disrespectful.
To facilitate this, I suggest the university provide more receptacles for cigarettes and the like, making it much more reasonable to expect people to dispose properly of them.
Even so, my grievance isn’t as a busybody or a smokers, it’s as a member of the DU community who wants to either see the smoking policy enforced consistently, replaced with a more manageable one, or for it to be totally dropped.
