Over the next four years, Patterson developed a policy in which trained staff members held polite conversations with students and faculty who violated the smoking rules. The first violation is a warning. The second and third result in $15 fines or two hours spent picking up tobacco litter. For any further violations, the offender is placed on probation or asked to leave the school.

Although some employees vehemently opposed the policy, Patterson says, no staff member ever reached the third violation, and only two students were placed on probation from the time the school enforced the policy in October 2004.

Ozarks Technical spent more than 3½ years developing the initiative and educating students and staff about the forthcoming policy. However, Patterson - who has now helped more than 500 schools, hospitals and businesses implement smoking bans as the director of the National Center for Tobacco Policy - says most campuses today can effectively institute a policy in one year since there’s less resistance to the concept than in 2003.

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It really works

The University of Michigan enacted a smoke-free policy on July 1. Campus officials spent three years researching policies and forming focus groups, committees and surveys to seek student and faculty input.

Since the ban was implemented, school Chief Health Officer Dr. Robert Winfield says, it’s uncommon to see smokers anywhere but along city of Ann Arbor sidewalks - where smoking is permitted. He cited one entrance to the Michigan Union known as a smoker hot spot. When he visited the area recently, he noted, “there wasn’t a smoker in sight.”

In 2009, the state of Kentucky had one of the highest smoking rates at 25.6%, according to the CDC.

Since the University of Kentucky turned smoke-free in November that year, an increasing number of people have sought tobacco treatment services. In 2008, 33 people enrolled in a tobacco cessation program. After the policy’s first year, enrollment rose to 146 people, according to Ellen Hahn, director of UK’s Tobacco Policy Research Program. The number of nicotine replacement coupons redeemed by students and faculty also increased from 124 to 470 in the same period.

For smokers visiting the campus, UK offers nicotine cessation products, such as gum or patches, for $5 at several locations.

“We’re trying to make it comfortable for people so they don’t feel like they have to light up and violate the policy,” Hahn said.

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Policy patrol

During the first semester of a smoking ban, Patterson recommends that universities not come down with a heavy fist and instead educate the community about the policy and the negative effects of tobacco.

Nearly two years later, the University of Kentucky still doesn’t exercise strict enforcement. “We certainly don’t have smoking police,” Hahn said.

Instead, smoke-free supporters like senior Melissa McCann, a Tobacco-free Take Action! volunteer, remind smokers of the ban. McCann said the 10 smokers she asked to extinguish their cigarettes this summer all complied.

“In a tobacco state, you might think we’d have more backlash and opposition than we did,” said Hahn, explaining that only a few students held a protest the day the policy launched.

Regardless of the health benefits, opponents argue that smoke-free policies infringe on people’s rights. Michigan senior Graham Kozak, president of the College Libertarians, says smoking is a “personal choice.”

“It’s not within the scope of the university’s responsibilities to decide that smoking is an activity that we as adults shouldn’t engage in,” he said.

Jonathan Sternberg, an attorney currently fighting a citywide smoking ban in Springfield, Missouri, says smoking bans “just don’t really make sense.”

“Any time you tell (people) that they can’t do something they want to do, really they’re just going to do it anyway. ... All you’re doing is encouraging disrespect for authority,” Sternberg said.