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All three of Quinnipiac’s campuses will soon be tobacco free.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to the health and well-being of our students, faculty, staff and visitors, I am pleased to announce that Quinnipiac will start the new year as a tobacco-free university,” said President Judy Olian in a statement sent out by email.

This new policy will go into effect on January 1, 2019 and will prohibit all tobacco products from cigarettes to any product that contains tobacco flavoring or nicotine.

The Student Government Association created a three-step smoking policy in order to take initiative on Quinnipiac becoming a smoke-free campus in the previous years.

Step two of this policy began last year, where designated smoking areas were supposed to be established.

Though the university never specified areas that were smoke-free, some students are pleased with the new policy that prohibits smoking altogether.

“I don’t think there are many people on campus that do smoke, but those that do are never courteous about it,” said Junior, Ashlee Baldwin. “Smokers are not only putting their health at risk, but everyone else’s too, just to feed an addiction, and I’m glad the university is no longer condoning that.”

Though this policy was put in place to help the health of the overall Quinnipiac community, it has seen some backlash.

Junior, Frank Lynch, believes this was not the right decision on the university’s part.

“Everyone on this campus is an adult, whether they act like it or not, and we don’t need anybody telling us what decisions to make regarding personal health,” said Lynch.

Emma Spagnuolo, a Senior at Quinnipiac University, believes the university did not consider the entire Quinnipiac population with this policy,

“I think it’s kind of insensitive to a lot of students and also employees. I’m not a smoker myself, but I don’t see the problem with people smoking outside of buildings,” Spagnuolo said. “I feel like Quinnipiac’s administration makes decisions like this all the time without considering the opinions of the community. And they’ll continue to do so and be unbothered by it.”

Quinnipiac’s North Haven campus has been tobacco-free since 2012 and the two other campuses will join due to research done by the Student Government Association and a discussion that had taken place between members of the President’s Cabinet.

While opinions on this policy differ across the student population, President Judy Olian believes this is the best choice for the university.

“By taking this important step, Quinnipiac joins more than 1,190 other universities that are tobacco-free, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation,” said Olian. “I thank you all for helping us in our efforts to make Quinnipiac university a healthy community for all.”