CORTLAND -- SUNY Cortland is now tobacco free. The school is one of the first in New York State to ban smoking on the entire campus.
Tobacco products are banned from all areas of the campus including outdoor walkways and athletic fields.
SUNY Cortland President Erik Bitterbaum says the school will be giving out warnings over the next few months to anyone caught smoking on campus.
"We are an educational institution, we're going to do a lot of education over the next few weeks," said Bitterbaum.
After the two months, tobacco users could be asked to leave the campus if they do not respect the policy.
The smoke free ban will also be in affect during Jets training camp this summer.
"We had 36,000 guests in three weeks and I do recall seeing lots of people throwing their cigarette butts on the ground," said Bitterbaum.
SUNY Cortland senior Jon Conry said he stays healthy and doesn't smoke but he feels bad for smokers who don't even have a designated area to go to.
"Pretty big campus, people have classes right in a row - they want to smoke a cigarette, where do they have to go?" asked Conry
SUNY Upstate Medical Center was the first SUNY campus to go smoke-free back in 2005. In 2007, SUNY Morrisville banned smoking in all college buildings and within a 20 ft. perimeter of all buildings. OCC also banned smoking within 50 feet of campus buildings in 2007. SUNY Oswego says it does not have a date set for when they will implement the smoke-free policy, but says it will meet the 2014 deadline.
The SUNY Chancellor has said all campuses must be completely smoke free by 2014. There are 64 SUNY campuses.
