You there, with the cigarette. Yes, you. DU is a smoke-free campus. That means you can’t smoke here.

You’re not the only one who didn’t realize this policy – Campus Safety officers, faculty and guest lecturers, not to mention Sodexo employees and even other students also seem unable to grasp it.

Though, we can forgive you, and them, since the smoking ban is a “work in progress.”

Or is it?

DU is approaching 28 months since implementing the smoke-free policy, and what does the campus have to show for it? A decrease in littered cigarette butts, sure, but that’s about it.

People are still smoking, and they’re doing so in locations other than the Ritchie Center or Newman Center during events, the primary exceptions to the ban.

That’s right – they are still smoking – and DU is still ignoring these Pioneers who fail to adhere to the smoke-free policy. As a private university, DU is allowed to flex its muscles in the clean air, should it so choose.

DU’s failure to consistently enforce this policy thus far puts the university at an impasse with diligent smokers. But there is good news: the 28th time is the charm.

As a new month of promise approaches, and possible USG candidates prepare their May campaigns, they should consider one of two things to include in their platform: push for enforcement of the smoke-free policy across the board – perhaps with a signature and a contract upon entering into the university as a student or otherwise – or retract the ban entirely.

After all, it was USG senators and DU administrators that established the policy in the first place.

Of course, there is a third option, making official what we’ve all only known since Jan. 1, 2010: turn this ban into a “smoke-free suggestion.”

Whatever USG and the administration decide, as a community all we can do is fume about the inconsistency. Oh, and do you have a light? I’ve only got a few minutes until my next class starts.