At the start of the Spring 2011 semester, Barnard College eliminated its two designated smoking zones: the first at the north end of Altschul Hall, the other on the north side of the Quad. An SGA vote taken in December 2010 knocked off the zones, which were more than five years old, after a Fall 2010 student poll suggested that a majority of Barnard students supported a blanket ban.

Indeed, the new Barnard Smoking Policy states clearly, “Smoking is prohibited in all college-owned student residences and all academic and administrative buildings. Outdoor smoking is not permitted within the confines of the campus.” Citing studies on the risk of secondhand smoke, the policy even suggests that students and employees of Barnard consider quitting.

Those Barnard students who spurn this suggestion and head outside the gates to smoke are reminded to “remain mindful of your proximity to office and dormitory windows, and to those passing by.” Given Columbia University’s predilection for protest and culture of dissent, the stage should have been set for an anti-administration demonstration.

By all accounts, however, the transition has been non-confrontationally anticlimactic. There have been no picketers or ironic “Give me cigarettes or give me death!” tees.

On the administration’s end, enforcement has been benign, if not downright sisterly. Says Barnard Public Safety Director Dianna Pennetti, “We are not aware of illicit smoking on campus. Since the policy is new, there may be those who are unfamiliar with or forgetful of the ban. In which case, we’re asking them to put out their cigarettes or to smoke off campus.”

Chief Operating Officer Gregory Brown adds, “As a community, we want to encourage a healthful lifestyle but we do not issue citations to those violating the policy nor do we keep track of repeat offenders. People have been generally cooperative and we don’t see that changing… So far we have had no resistance to the policy and it seems to be going along very well.”

It’s a clever and surprisingly effective application of policy—killing self-styled smoking revolutionaries with softness. And now, happily and quietly, the smoking spaces deep in the bosom of Barnard’s tree lined campus, bereft of ashtrays, are just spaces once more.