That is when when the University of Otago implements its campus-wide smoke-free policy, which prohibits smoking on all the university's campuses.
A smoking ban already applies inside all Otago University buildings and within 6m of the exterior of all buildings on the Dunedin campus.
The university yesterday officially launched its new smoke-free policy, which extends the smoking restriction campus-wide.
Mr Oaten (52), who has made and sold coffee on campus for nearly 20 years, said the policy change was a ''great idea''.
He runs his one-man coffee business in a corridor called the ''east lane'', beside the university central library and will not be nipping out to nearby Albany St for a quick smoke when the new policy takes effect.
''I just won't smoke at work.''
Some of his customers were lingering in a grassy area north of the library yesterday and smoking a cigarette or two while drinking their fresh coffee.
He was unsure if the policy change would harm his business, but said he favoured greatly restricted access to cigarettes - by prescription only - to discourage new smokers from taking up the habit.
Of about 10 smokers interviewed on campus yesterday, three opposed the new policy, including one visiting non-student, who said smokers were being ''treated like lepers''.
Another student, Anisha Lee (24), said more students were likely to smoke in the streets outside the immediate campus area, potentially harming the university's image.
Several other students supported the policy change, including two occasional smokers who said it would reduce pressure to smoke.
Second-year student Manish Kumar (19) said the new policy would be a ''good thing''- he smoked mainly in the weeks before examinations and was likely to smoke much less under the new policy.
Otago vice-chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne said the university was offering ''the best support we can'' to help staff and students who wished to quit smoking, including help from on-campus Quit advisers.
The university was also supporting staff and domestic students by subsidising the dispensing fee charged when smokers redeem Quit cards for nicotine replacement treatments.
Prof Richard Edwards, the co-convener of the university's Smoke-free Campus Implementation Group, said the new policy would be ''overwhelmingly positive''.
Compliance with the new policy was likely to be largely self-monitored, non-smokers likely to quietly remind smokers who forgot about the change.
Disciplinary procedures were in place for people who sought to persistently flout the new policy. Prof Edwards, who heads the public health department at the university's Wellington campus, said 5000 New Zealanders died prematurely each year from smoking and many more people suffered bad health and greatly reduced quality of life.
