Students have been banned from smoking within 50 feet of all UF buildings for more than a year, but one UF professor's research shows students are still lighting up where they shouldn't be.
Steven B. Pokorny, an assistant professor in the department of health education and behavior, tested the effectiveness of the smoking policy that was implemented on January 22, 2007.
Pokorny is the principal investigator of the Assessing Compliance with Outdoor Smoke-Free Policy study.
He compared smoking violations on UF's campus with buildings on the Santa Fe College campus, which adopted a smoking policy similar to UF's.
His results showed significantly more violations of the smoking policy at UF versus SFC.
He took variables, such as the amount of area assessed and foot traffic, into account during his studies.
SFC's police issue citations to individuals smoking in non-designated areas.
At UF, enforcement is left up to building administrators, and the efforts have been lacking, he said.
"Policy without enforcement is really ineffective," Pokorny said.
Pokorny feels that a smoke-free campus and effective student-based enforcement would create stronger compliance with the policy.
In the hopes of creating a more effective policy, researchers and members of Healthy Gators 2010 are working to make UF a completely smoke-free campus, which they feel would take effect primarily through students.
Ryan O'Mara, a student representative for Healthy Gators 2010's Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation Task Force and chairman of the safety committee of the Student Senate, is working toward creating a student-initiative to ban smoking on the UF campus.
"If you get the student support behind it and they support the policy, they might be able to enforce policy more," O'Mara said.
William S. Properzio, the director of UF's Division of Environmental Health and Safety and member of Healthy Gators 2010, said police have been reluctant to enforce the policy and suggests the best approach is through peer-enforcement.
"The more that we can empower through the students, the better," Properzio said.
The division created an informational business card that reiterates the smoking policy's regulations for students who fear confronting smokers who violate UF's smoking policy.
"If you feel uncomfortable about approaching someone, give them a card," he said.
