<p>Well, FWIW Tulane is hardly alone in this. [Colleges</a> and Universities - no-smoke.org](<a href=“http://www.no-smoke.org/goingsmokefree.php?id=447]Colleges”>Colleges - American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation | no-smoke.org) and to take some highlights from this and other news highlights:</p>
<p>**1,159 campuses are 100% smoke-free as of April 5, 2013. This is more than double from just two years prior.</p>
<p>Illinois is likely to pass a bill that bans smoking on all state-supported campuses</p>
<p>All of the schools in the University System of Maryland will be smoke-free by the start of next school year, as will be George Washington and American universities in the District.</p>
<p>Studies show that smoking bans do reduce the percentage of students that smoke as a habit. At Indiana U where a smoking ban went into effect January 2008, smoking levels have dropped by over 22% while at nearby Purdue, which has not changed its policy of limited smoking areas, usage has actually risen slightly (6%).</p>
<p>The US Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS) proposed a regulation that all colleges ban smoking and those that don’t could lose federal grants.**</p>
<p>The point being that this is hardly isolated to Tulane and that it appears to be the inevitable direction regarding this issue. There were actually a lot more articles on the topic than I would have ever guessed, and in major publications like TIME, USA Today, Huffington Post, etc. I rather agree with smchls that if the rules about smoking in restricted areas had been enforced, and especially if those areas had been limited to very low traffic spots, this might not have come about yet, although I still think it would have eventually based on what I am reading. But it certainly is easier to enforce a total ban, plus apparently experience has shown that signage and the “pressure” of a total ban is far more effective than a partial ban.</p>
<p>I know you don’t like it smchls, but it really appears this is a pretty strong movement in this direction.</p>