UF's no-tobacco policy is helping to clear the air at other universities.
The University of Central Florida announced Thursday that the campus will be smoke-free by fall 2012.
The university's smoke-free task force considered policies at other universities and decided it was most comfortable with UF's, said Megan Pabian, spokeswoman for health services at UCF.
Pabian said the task force "took a lesson-learned approach" when it looked at the way other universities had ended on-campus smoking.
Like UF, UCF will advertise the change on campus ahead of time. Pabian said she expects the new measure to go into effect in November 2012.
UF went tobacco-free July 1, 2010, said Jane Emmeree, a health promotion specialist at GatorWell. Emmeree chaired the UF Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Task Force, which recommended the change to administrators.
The university does not punish people who smoke on campus, said UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes. Still, she said the tobacco-free campus effort has been successful.
"I believe we've done that without enforcement," she said. "We've been trying to do it positively and through role modeling of others."
