In a broadcast email to students on Friday, University Vice Chancellor of Student Life and Enrollment Kurt Keppler announced stricter enforcement measures of the school’s tobacco-free policy.
“Unfortunately, there have been problems in certain areas of campus that have prompted complaints that people are still using tobacco products,” the email reads.
First-time offenders, both students and employees will receive a warning, according to the email. Any subsequent offenses will send students to the office of Student Advocacy and Accountability and employees to Human Resource Management.
The University implemented its tobacco-free policy on Aug. 1, 2014 and it has been met with mixed reactions. Student smokers spoke out at a Jan. 28 Student Government senate meeting, asking for designated smoking areas.
Mass communication professor Judith Sylvester, founder of Smoking Words, an organization that pushed for the tobacco ban, told The Daily Reveille earlier this month the problem was centered around Middleton Library.
“People decided they really couldn’t get through their midterms without cigarettes—and no one did anything about it,” Sylvester said. “It’s all just snowballed from there.”