It’s no secret that USI has a no-smoking policy on campus – or at least it shouldn’t be a secret with all the signage the school has posted.

Although it is a good thing that the university does not let smoking occur on campus, the policy is too lax.

As a smoker, there have been plenty of instances when Public Safety officers have scolded me for smoking in the parking lot and there have been other times when Public Safety officers saw me smoking right outside of my classes and did not say a word.

It seems as if some people get away with violating the policy depending on whether or not the Public Safety officer cares about smoking, while others get scolded for it because a different officer decides to enforce the policy.

What makes the policy ineffective is that many people ignore it.

They do not ignore the policy out of disrespect, they ignore it out of the lack of enforcement.

If rules and policies are set in place but there are no consequences if they are broken, smokers on campus are going to continue to break the rules.

The smoke-free policy needs to either be enforced or completely dissolved.

It is incomprehensible for some Public Safety officers to enforce it and others to not.

If the university plans to keep this a non-smoking campus, it needs to let not one, but all of the Public Safety officers, know that smoking will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

If everyone is on the same page, the smoke-free policy may actually become effective.