Students will soon lose their right to puff cigarettes in Norris University Center.

The Norris Center Advisory Board voted unanimously in March to ban smoking in the entire building. The policy will take effect in the summer.

“People have the right to smoke, but as soon as that right starts infringing on the rights of others – that right being their health – then they no longer have that right,” said board co-chairwoman Laura Ellis, a Weinberg senior.

Currently, people are allowed to smoke only in the game room and the south side of the dining area on the ground floor after 8 p.m., but non-smokers have complained that students pay little attention to the rules.

“The problem with that policy is that people smoke there all day, so the policy wasn’t really followed,” said board member Courtney Brunsfeld, a Weinberg junior and Associated Student Government student services vice president.

But Weinberg sophomore Anya Drabkin, a non-smoker, said banning smoking in Norris is pointless.

“It’s stupid,” she said. “There are just as many people who smoke as people who don’t smoke. Banning smoking will force people outside, which isn’t fair. I want to be able to sit with my friends at lunchtime.”

The smoking ban comes after a change in dorm smoking policy instituted during Winter Quarter. William Banis, vice president for student affairs, said all dorms are smoking-free by default, but that individual dorm governments have the right to implement whatever smoking policy they want.

The issue has been brought up many times to the board and students have submitted comment cards requesting a smoke-free atmosphere in Norris, Brunsfeld said.

Board members said the decision was made for health reasons.

“People are always smoking during lunch, which is bad for people’s health,” Ellis said. “We’ve gotten tons of complaints. The ventilation system is not that great and you can still smell smoke from the other side.

“The decision should have been made a long time ago,” she said. “Norris is the only building on campus that allows smoking. We’re behind the times.”

The policy will benefit most students, Brunsfeld said.

“Students who don’t smoke at all and go there at night to study will probably be very excited,” she said. “Students who do smoke are not going to be as happy, but hopefully they’ll be able to step outside and make the largest number of people who come to Norris happy.”