Smoking is prohibited at UvA, so why are so many people smoking?
The UvA has been fined €2,400 over the past three years by the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) for poor enforcement of the smoking ban on campus. But the cost for just nine weeks of enforcement at the UvA and HvA ran as high as €600,000 during that period. So out of necessity, Facility Services is turning to “humorous signs.” Is it working? “It’s like mopping up water when the leak is still there.”
There is bustling activity in front of the doors of the renovated JK building. Off and on, students make their way through the crowd. Many are in conversation, others are lost in thought. But one thing is certain this Tuesday afternoon: No one will escape all the smoke and penetrating smell of cigarettes floating around the entrance. The collection of discarded cigarette butts on the steps is also similarly impressive.
This is all despite the fact that “smoking is not allowed on campus.” This is written on the new English and Dutch language signs on UvA’s Roeterseiland campus. Smoking has been prohibited by law at all Dutch educational institutions since August 2020. UvA student Junho Jeon (22) is one of many who doesn’t care. He stands right next to the sign, directly under the awning, with a cigarette in his hand. Only when the Communication Science student is sent away does he go somewhere else to smoke, he unabashedly reveals.
But does this happen everywhere on campus? As yet, enforcement is nowhere to be seen. Project leader Marc de Jong, in charge of the UvA and HvA smoking policy and employed by Facility Services, explains. According to him, there were smoking monitors on all UvA and HvA campuses about nine weeks a year until 2023 to enforce the ban, at the beginning of the academic year and at the start of the second semester. Price tag: €200,000 per year. Calculated back to August 2020, when the ban was legally imposed, that comes to €600,000.
Contrast that with the fines that educational institutions can receive from regulator NVWA if they do not adequately enforce the smoking ban on campuses. These amounts range from €600 to €4,500, an NVWA spokesperson reports. This is after the NVWA has issued an official warning.
Enforcement halted
After more than three years, the UvA is sitting on some €2,400 in NVWA fines. That is dwarfed by the €600,000 spent on enforcement in three years, says Marc de Jong. Let alone if you were to enforce the ban throughout the year. Then the costs would rise to about two million a year, he estimates. “But that’s not an option, because that would, of course, be totally out of proportion to what you want to achieve.”
So an incentive for more enforcement is lacking. On working visits to other educational institutions—universities, colleges and MBOs—De Jong noticed that “actually nobody deploys smoking monitors anymore or has security guards actively enforce the smoking ban.” Simply “because it costs an awful lot of money.” Facility Services also stopped active enforcement at the UvA and HvA in 2024.
What is the alternative? De Jong emphasizes the responsibility of students and employees to point out the house rules to others. After all, he says: “Failure to point out undesirable behavior on campus is also considered undesirable behavior.”
Humorous signs
In addition, De Jong necessarily deploys “humorous signs” to create awareness and exposure. Thirty in all, seven of which, by the way, were stolen on the first day only to be replaced later. But do the signs work? De Jong also walked past the JK building the other day and saw the cigarette butts lying in large numbers in front of the entrance. “We’re just mopping up,” De Jong responds in a realistic tone. “You don’t see a change in behavior among students. Nor are we under the illusion that the signs will solve the problem. But this way it draws attention to the ban and we hope that in this way joint responsibility grows.”
For behavioral change, enforcement is indispensable, UvA professor of health communication Bas van den Putte believes. The new signs are nice, he thinks, especially the one at the entrance to REC A where an ensemble of anti-smoking signs has been set up. “They attract a lot of attention.” But only through constant enforcement will a new standard naturally emerge over time, Van den Putte expects.
In this, Van den Putte also sees a role for security and bicycle monitors. Bicycle monitor Gamachis Kemal tells Folia he has not been instructed to address students about the smoking ban. But what he does notice is that his official jacket deters smokers. He thinks it’s important that the rules are followed, so he “sometimes stands a little closer on purpose.”
It is important that smokers are made aware of the rules by someone with authority, Van den Putte adds, and such an official jacket can help. “Provided they support it and you instruct bicycle monitors and security guards properly on how best to address smokers on this.”
Nuisance
“If someone talks a lot in the quiet compartment on the train, for example, my opening question is always: Are you aware that you are in a quiet compartment?” That way you’re not just dryly pointing out a ban. “But give that person enough space to respond to it. Smokers are better off being made aware that the campus is smoke-free than being told that it is forbidden to smoke there.”
The entire Valckenier Street has been made smoke-free in consultation with local residents.
By the way, about 90 percent of staff and students are aware of the smoking ban on campus, according to a UvA panelsurvey of 604 students and 180 employees, the results of which were announced last week. Some 83 percent of students feel the smoking ban is clearly stated on signs and online channels compared to three-quarters of employees.
However, there is more ambiguity about where exactly the campus begins and ends. Take Valckenierstraat, behind the JK building and REC V, which no longer feels like part of campus. At least, that’s how Junho Jeon, UvA student, Jacey van Arnhem (19), and Kazakh UvA student Zhangir Kakimzhan (19) experienced it when asked. “It’s quite complex,” De Jong acknowledges.
“At Valckenierstraat an exception was made in consultation with the municipality to spare local residents from nuisance,” says De Jong. “That’s why the blue line that says ‘Smoke-free’ has been drawn at the beginning of the road to indicate that smoking is no longer allowed from that point.” How did local residents feel about that? “They thought it was a great idea,” said project manager De Jong.
