St. Clair College is not fully smoke free now, but a conversation about that possibility has begun.
Some Ontario colleges and universities have adopted plans to go smoke free.
St. Clair Vice President John Fairley says it will be at least two years before that could happen.
He points out that with many acres of land at the main campus in Windsor, downtown Windsor and in Chatham, it would be a huge challenge.
Speaking on the Lynn Martin Show on AM800, Fairley says they have some designated areas now.
He says just policing those spaces is already a challenge.
"We have to have a plan to allow people to smoke in the right areas and also for people not to be smoking where people don't want people smoking. So that's where the discussion is started about smoke-free. We had to be sure that our own smoke free areas are being monitored I guess to a degree"
Fairley says the college population is not as young as at high schools.
"The average age of those coming to the college are 23-24 years old, and of course our staff and that too but we have adults coming here and it's a different conversation of saying no right away without having conversations of what is best practices"
He says they are already discussing options internally.
"If this happens what is the best practices, this is how you would do it. But nothing has come to the senior group, it's just a working plan by our facilities department to get what we're doing right now. Then take it to the next step if we want to have those conversations"
Fairley says there is not mandate currently to force colleges to go smoke free, but that may come.