Widener University Practices A Strict Tobacco-free Policy

Widener University students make all kinds of decisions about their lives, from how much to drink at parties to whether to show up for classes.

But there's one decision the school has made for them:

No using tobacco. Not on campus.

Last year, Widener became the first four-year school in Pennsylvania to go not just smoke-free but tobacco-free, adopting a simple, stringent policy:

No cigarettes, no cigars, no cigarillos, no pipes, no hookahs, no pinch between the cheek and gum. Nowhere, no time, no how.

The rule also applies to faculty and staff, and to visitors and contractors, banning buy cigarettes use even in personal cars or work trucks that drive onto campus.

So how is it working out?

"I know a lot of people on campus who do smoke, and they're smoking cigarettes less," said Ashley Nilsen, a senior civil-engineering major from Waymart, Pa. "It's good for the rest of us."

Smokers who used to congregate outside building entrances now trudge to the edge of campus, stepping over the boundary that divides gown from town.

Last week, Roseann McNeill, a senior from Drexel Hill, stood smoking cigarettes a cigarette at East 15th and Melrose Streets, where dozens of discarded butts lay on the ground.

She called the cheap cigarette online ban "ridiculous."

"I don't think it's really safe to have all the undergrads going off-campus, especially in Chester at night, just to have a cigarette," she said.

A Widener staffer who stood nearby, puffing a smoke, said the rule was fine with him.

"When I didn't smoke cigarettes cigarettes, I didn't want someone smoking cigarettes a cigarette and blowing it at my face," said Chris Lucchi, assistant locksmith and assistant fire marshal. "They want us off campus to do it. Fine."

Graduate student Nathyn Smith had just arrived from Indiana when he lit up in front of another student.

"She kind of snapped at me," he said. "I'm like, 'I'm from out of town!' "

His previous school, Ball State University, designated smoking cigarettes areas on campus, and he said Widener should do the same.

"I don't feel picked on, but people should have a choice," Smith said. "If they want to smoke, so be it. That's what college is all about, making choices."

Widener framed its policy as being about health, not punishment - at least not right away.

An initial offense merits a warning. A second offense brings a $25 fine, a third $50. A fourth could mean unspecified penalties up to dismissal for students and faculty.