At 2:30 p.m. the sidewalks between North and South Foundation halls and the Oakland Center are alive with activity. As Bike Share bikes cross paths and the Bear Bus swings curbside, approximately 25 students near the SFH main entrance stop for a cigarette between classes.

The late summer afternoon seems like any other at Oakland, except that a recent university policy change was supposed make the latter an aberration in everyday activity on campus.

On Aug. 31, John Beaghan, OU’s vice president for finance and administration and treasurer to the Board of Trustees, sent an email to students, faculty and staff, communicating an expansion of the university smoking policy. In amending Policy #475, the email stated, “the University has expanded the campus non-smoking policy to include not only inside University owned buildings, but also a 50-foot perimeter outside buildings.”

Beaghan attributed the recent revisions in policy to an attempt to make the OU campus a healthier environment that would be more accommodating to students and visitors alike.

However, student opinion regarding the policy change is divided.  Senior math majors Stephanie Zerafa and Taylor King had less in common than their majors suggest. King, who has asthma, supports the university’s steps to increase restrictions in where students and visitors are allowed to smoke on campus.

“I hate when people smoke,” King said. “If they could get rid of it (smoking) without hurting the economy, I wish they would.”

While neither of the two are smokers, Zerafa expressed less concern for the smoking policy change.

“It doesn’t really bother me,” she said. “I don’t pay much attention to who smokes and who does not.”

Elizabeth Gretkierewicz, a sophomore health science major, said that enforcement of the smoking policy is essentially non-existent.

“I think people know (about the change), but there’s still a smoker’s pole right next to the bench outside South Foundation Hall,” she said. “It doesn’t make much sense to me.”

Additionally, Gretkierewicz said that the new locations of cigarette-disposal urns, in some cases, make smoking more of an inconvenience to others than it was under the former policy.

“They (the poles) are right in the middle of the walkway in some places,” she said. “As common courtesy, I try not to be a nuisance to people. I won’t smoke in the middle of walkways or in front of building entrances.”

The locations of some poles conflict with the new 50-foot smoking restriction. No Butts Bins (or Smoke Stations), attached to outer walls near building entrances on campus, can also create confusion for smokers, especially visitors, regarding which areas are designated for smoking.

“If the policy is 50 feet, you would expect the poles to be at least 50 feet from buildings,” Gretkierewicz said. “It’s like OU made this new policy without a way to enforce it.”