TRAVERSE CITY -- Jacob Kobza smokes a cigarette during every class break.
Kobza, a student at Northwestern Michigan College, said the nicotine helps him relieve stress from a full day of classes.
But Kobza, 25, will have to find another stress-reliever, since NMC trustees voted 4 to 3 this week to make all campuses tobacco-free by next fall.
"It's a slap in the face to us smokers," he said. "We understand it be can be irritable. I just wish they would've given us some options."
Kobza said he proposed to trustees that NMC designate a tobacco area, not ban it entirely.
The tobacco ban will take effect on a "voluntary basis" beginning in the Fall 2010 semester, but NMC officials will not enforce it until Jan. 1, 2011.
"This will have ripple effects throughout the campus community," said NMC spokesman Paul Heaton.
The policy prevents tobacco use on NMC's Main Campus, Aero Park Campus, University Center, Rogers Observatory and the Great Lakes Campus.
"I think it's going to piss a lot of people off," said NMC student Jared Prusick, 19.
NMC officials "are still sorting out" how the college will police the tobacco ban, which could render changes to the Student Code of Conduct, Heaton said.
The college currently follows city law, which prohibits smoking within 15 feet of building entrances.
Kobza abides by the current policy, but he said enforcing a tobacco ban is "a waste of time because there's more important things to worry about."
The policy states that tobacco is banned "in order to promote a healthy culture of learning for students, staff, faculty and guests."
John Ricketts said nearly all of his classmates take a smoke break during English class, but he's not one of them.
"I think it's repulsive," he said. "Whenever I walk out the door, there's a huge cloud of smoke."
Ricketts, 18, welcomes the tobacco ban, but doesn't think students will abide by it.
Brianna Vanderley plans to continue smoking on campus next year, but she said she will probably resort to her vehicle to light up.
Aside from relieving stress, Vanderley said smoke breaks allow her to socialize with friends in between classes.
"I'm sure a lot of other students will continue to smoke, too," she said.
More than 20 Michigan colleges and universities enforce smoke-free or tobacco-free policies.
Trustees Robert Brick, Williams Myers, Cheryl Follette and Susan Sheldon voted in favor of the smoking ban, while Douglas Bishop, Walter Hooper and K. Ross Childs opposed it.
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