ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) -
One of Mary Schmidt-Owens' jobs at the University of Central Florida this school year is to let staff and faculty know about a new campus smoking ban that is so thorough, it even bans smoking in personal vehicles.
"If someone is seen smoking in their car, they can actually ask them to please put it out" said Schmidt-Owens, the assistant director of medical health administration.
The old policy banning smoking within 25 feet of a building is replaced with a new campus wide smoking ban. UCF administrators say is an attempt to change the culture at the college by also getting rid of all designated smoking areas.
"If you are going to change behavior" Schmidt-Owens said, "then just create an environment for all, rather than funneling them to one spot."
To gauge the effectiveness of the new policy, administrators are going to conduct "butt counts"; essentially going to popular smoking areas and counting the number of cigarette butts on the ground.
What remains to be seen is how effective the smoking ban will be. There are no penalties or fines for smoking on campus. Instead, violators will be encouraged by colleagues to stop smoking.
"We really don't want it to be an argument" said Schmidt-Owens, "We really want it to create an environment and a culture, that we can all be positive about."
