The policy prohibiting smoking in university vehicles has been in effect for over a year now and has not met any opposition, NIU officials said.

Last February, a no-smoking policy was established by the Interior Facilities Environment Committee.

Patricia Perkins, assistant to the vice president of Finance and Planning and a member of the Interior Facilities Environment Committee, said she never received any complaints from NIU employees since the policy was implemented.

“I have never personally heard of any grievances about the policy, so I would assume no one is upset by it,” she said.

Perkins said the vehicles used from NIU motor pool services are always non-smoking vehicles. However, if a vehicle is assigned to a particular department on an everyday basis, smoking is permitted.

“As long as the supervisor of the department agrees, smoking will be allowed in those vehicles that are used by the same person everyday,” she said.

“We have an employee who fixes washing machines in the dormitories, and he uses the same truck everyday. He is allowed to smoke if he chooses,” Perkins said.

NIU Transportation Director Bill Finucane said some faculty and staff requested nonsmoking vehicles after similar policies had been passed for university buildings.

“Some people are sensitive to smoke, and it was becoming a problem to issue vehicles out to nonsmokers because once a car has been smoked in, the smell is hard to get rid of,” he said.

Finucane said they have noticed the interior of the cars have been staying cleaner since the no-smoking policy has taken effect.

The reason for making the entire car pool non-smoking was to make enforcement of the policy easier, he said.