NYU Bans Smoking on Public Sidewalks Outside School Buildings Updated February 25, 2010 7:00am

NYU sophomore Kelly Callahan pauses for a cigarette break outside Bobst Library. (Nicole Breskin/DNAinfo)

By Nicole Breskin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

GREENWICH VILLAGE — NYU is stepping up its war on cigarettes by banning smoking on public sidewalks outside school buildings.

NYU will post notices on campus in the coming weeks about the plan to ban smoking within 15 feet of entrances, exits and air vents of all university buildings, NYU spokesperson John Beckman told DNAinfo.

The ban will be fully implemented by fall 2010 with campus Public Safety officers and school administrators enforcing the rule.

“Students have gotten into the habit of smoking right outside the entryways of buildings, especially Bobst Library,” Beckman said. “Based on recent studies and events, we believe it can be dangerous and led us to think we should implement the 15-foot smoking ban across NYU.”

NYU has already banned smoking in its residence halls in the fall of 2006, and in residence hall courtyards last year.

The extension of the smoking ban was introduced to students and faculty via a campus-wide email in October with a university-run study attached to gauge reactions. According to NYU, more than 80 percent of students, faculty and staff initially supported the ban.

But, as the implemenation looms, strong opposition has emerged from the NYU community and Greenwich Village residents, who both believe — albeit for different reasons — that the policy is unjust.

“I think it’s a terrible idea,” said David Lee, a junior at the university. “Unless the school gives us a room for smoking, which they don’t, I think this is totally unfair.”

Kelly Callahan, a 19-year-old sophomore at the school, was most concerned about the social aspect to smoking that she’d now be missing out on.

“It’s a social thing here. People would hang out during cigarette breaks. I’m going to miss that,” she said.

Meanwhile, Sullivan Street resident Dawn Breen fears the ban could force NYU's smokers to venture around the block and into the neighborhood to light up.

“I want to open my windows in the spring as it gets warmer,” said Breen, who has a young toddler. “This could become an issue.”

Her mother-in-law, Sally Breen, who lives on the block chimed in: “I just hope they stay in Washington Square Park.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced a policy last summer that prohibits smoking within 15 feet of diagnostic and treatment centers' entrances and exits that first led NYU’s College of Dentistry to adopt the ban in Nov. 2009.