Monday’s faculty lecture in the President’s Dining Room focused on the effects of smoke in contemporary art especially here in the Los Angeles area.

With the start of the new school year, the housing office has updated its policies to make them easier to understand and implement.

“Rango,” the animated children’s film, has been sparking controversy even before it opened due to the amount of smoking in the movie and the effect it may have on children. Critics of the movie say that it influences children to take up smoking because the characters smoke excessively.

Laws, policies and rules are made everywhere to make those involved safe. They are at companies, in countries and even at the University of La Verne.

The new smoking policy, which took effect Jan. 1 and banishes smokers to parking lots and a few designated smoking areas, is getting mixed reviews from students and staff, who also note that its enforcement so far has been spotty.

Not too long ago the University of La Verne adopted a policy which would further restrict where smokers could smoke. The policy, which will be enforced on Jan. 1, will restrict smokers to lighting up in parking lots.

The students and employees of the University of La Verne no longer have to worry about walking through a cloud of secondhand smoke.

Many smokers call it an attack on their ever-dwindling freedoms, but if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs Senate Bill 4, public health and the environment will be much better off.