The Jan. 1 implementation of “Breathe Free UC Davis” carried a certain set of expectations from the University and from its citizens. Based on the pictures displayed on breathefree.ucdavis.edu, it seems the University expects their program to result in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, smoke-free students. That’s not what we predict.

We foresee post-apocalyptic trashcan fires from renegade smokers disposing of their butts in improper receptacles (like the Jan. 7 incident at Segundo Residence Halls) — no more ashtrays under the new policy. We foresee mid-quad confrontations between enforcers and unwilling participants. We foresee sass, snark and narcs. We don’t foresee any peaceful change at this juncture.

We find it important to note that we’re not saying we support smoking — we just don’t support the policy. Breathe Free may have some good intentions, but for the most part it seems oppressive rather than educational, badly-planned, poorly-advertised and unrealistic.

What is the motivation behind this program? The website claims it is “for a healthier community and cleaner environment,” but it seems to be more skewed toward policing others’ rights.

At its core, Breathe Free implies the University wishes to cut out people’s exposure to smoke. Then why are they also banning e-cigarettes? The University outwardly states, in an email from Vice Chancellor John Meyer, that they “hope this policy will provide positive motivation for tobacco users to quit,” a goal based not on encouragement but on control. That isn’t their place.

The control extends past the student body and their bodies — staff and faculty are no exception to the rule, not to mention the hundreds of guests the campus sees every year, what with major events such as Whole Earth Festival, Picnic Day, sports events and graduations.

The no-smoke zone extends to “all indoor and outdoor spaces owned or leased by UC Davis,” as well as “housing buildings and facilities that are rented from the University” (such as the Residence Halls, West Village and the Colleges at La Rue). This means visiting or residential smokers would have to walk, bike or drive any distance across the 8.3 square miles of the largest UC campus for just one puff of a cigarette.

The Breathe Free policy would be much more reasonable if it provided certain concessions, such as providing designated smoking spaces on our (rather large) campus and allowing reasonable alternatives like electronic cigarettes. Although it may be a common occurrence to see students hindered by biking through a cloud of smoke, we’ve never seen anyone at a loss for breath around an e-cig.

Also, the alternatives provided by the University are not sufficient to facilitate a quitting smoker’s needs — “a free two-week supply of nicotine replacement therapy, smoking cessation classes and 24/7 telephone counseling.” Adding physical and psychological withdrawal from cigarettes to students’ already high levels of social and academic stress seems like an unfair burden, and nicotine patches and gum won’t necessarily help you kick your addiction in two weeks or less. Asking students to shell out for these products after the “free trial” is over is impractical — we’re broke college kids who can barely afford to buy textbooks, let alone Nicorette.

The policy’s website also states that “after an initial phase-in period, additional reinforcement measures may be considered.” This indeterminate introduction stage coupled with vague mention of prosecution (that borders on threatening) is uncomfortably cryptic. Based on UC Davis’ history of surprisingly violent enforcement of campus rules, it’s questionable at best that we aren’t told when and how smokers will be penalized.

What will be their punishment? Who will be doling out said discipline? And, on top of packs of patches and gum, what’s this all going to cost us?

According to UC Davis’ Strategic Communications Department, $77,000 has been allocated for the first year of advertising, including brochures, signs, promotional videos and a Great American Smokeout event. Another $15,000 is put aside for any signs and marketing that the University deems necessary in the next year.

And to us, that doesn’t seem worth it. Breathe Free needs more work if UC Davis wants it to work. The University needs to be more lenient, and a little more transparent — if they don’t want our students to be obscured by smoke, their words shouldn’t be either.

Here is the campaign’s communication budget:

How many of us have skipped a lecture because we could listen to the podcast or read someone else’s notes later? These methods are not adequate substitutes for lecture, so we should not use them as an excuse to miss lecture when we can attend class. We often do this to minimize time spent on classes we dislike, but fail to realize that this strategy ultimately makes the class require more work, not less.

Podcasts or others’ notes prevent users from interacting with the professor and other students, which makes understanding the lecture more difficult. For example, at lecture, if we do not understand something, we can ask the professor during or after class for clarification, which is impossible through a podcast or notes.  In addition, the podcast and most notes do not pick up what students say during lecture, such as questions or answers to the professor’s questions, which are often helpful, if not necessary, for understanding.

Despite these costs, sometimes we miss lecture because we do not feel like going. Many times, our lack of motivation is due to our lack of interest in the class. We think that listening to the podcasts or reading others’ notes instead will take less effort but still allow us to pass.

However, we do not realize that these methods do not save time. The podcast is as long as the lecture, which defeats our purpose. While reading someone’s notes once takes much less time than the lecture, almost none of us will understand the material after reading notes once. To learn as much from someone’s notes as we would from writing them ourselves during lecture, we have to read them many times, which likely will take longer than going to lecture.

Many times when we make the excuse to ourselves that missing lecture is okay because we will listen to the podcast or get notes, we lack the self-discipline to carefully listen to or read all of it. As a result, we fall behind in the class, which makes understanding the rest of the class harder as classes build on themselves.

As we need to pass the class, we now must study harder for a class we have no interest in. By trying to minimize the effort we put into a class, we accomplish the exact opposite, compounding our frustration. Instead of struggling to catch up while the class continues to move forward, it is much less work to keep pace with the class by going to lecture, even for a class we have no interest in. While skipping class is easier at the moment, we will have to repay that debt with interest later.

Discipline about keeping up is easier with the attitude that we must go to lecture at the scheduled time. If we have this attitude, we cannot procrastinate as we would miss the class. If we plan to listen to the podcast or read others’ notes, however, we can easily put that off until tomorrow, then the next day, and so on.

In addition, learning is much easier in a lecture hall designed to create a conducive environment. In the lecture hall, a live human speaks to us, which we find harder to ignore than a recording or written notes. In addition, live classmates taking notes surround us, which help us focus as well. Finally, we have less access to distractions such as Facebook and phones in a lecture hall compared to listening to a podcast or reading notes at home.

However, sometimes we must unexpectedly miss lecture. Before making the decision to not go, ask yourself, “Why am I not going? Is it a real emergency, that is, is it something I would miss a party with my friends for? Or do I just feel lazy right now?”

If it is a real emergency and we must miss lecture, podcasts and notes are a great tool to catch up. Despite their inadequacies compared to lecture, they are useful when going to lecture is impossible. However, don’t expect to gain the same understanding this way as from the lecture. Most importantly, don’t let missing lecture become a habit.

Use podcasts and others’ notes as a tool to help yourself, but do not let them act as a catalyst to you hurting yourself. The only way to do that is to be honest with yourself about your intentions and motivations.

To share your experiences with skipping lecture, contact WILLIAM CONNER at wrconner@ucdavis.edu.

I love the first day of school. I love seeing if someone cute is in the class, then hoping I have discussion with them. I also love how what I thought I knew about a subject is just completely different from what that subject actually is, and the approach the class is taking to learn it. That’s sort of like what reading Nietzsche is like.

I read Thus Spake Zarathustra (Nietzsche’s portrayal of himself through the protagonist as a bearer of existentialism to man) over break because I am going through a hipster phase. Okay, maybe not exactly, but that’s how I felt reading this book. To explain it concisely, Nietzsche made me feel like I needed one of those berets that mimes wear.

In any case, that book was just full of so many surprises, and although (in my opinion) Nietzsche kind of seems like he thinks he’s really cool, I enjoyed it. Nietzsche seems like the guy at the party who walks around casually bringing up his GPA, which is actually not the highest one you have ever heard of, and expects all the ladies to swoon.

“No. Go away, Nietzsche.”

The book was also full of applicable life lessons, and the one I would like to share is how to approach the first day of school. Nietzsche is pretty germane to the struggle of figuring out what your quarter is going to be like when you walk into SocSci 1100 on the first day of class.

First reaction, “Oh man, that guy who just walked in is really cute.” That’s how the book started. I was like, “Damn, Zarathustra, you seem pretty cool and rugged because you lived in the forest all these years. Teach me your ways.”

Zarathustra is like the hot guy on the first day of class because he does things that make you think, “Aww, adorbs.” For example, I could not help myself from LOLing at some of the things Zarathustra said. “I teach you the Superman.” Hopefully kids these days will get the following reference, because all I could think of when I read that was the Soulja Boy song from 2007 where he goes, “Watch me crank that soulja boy and superman that hoe!” Look up a picture of Nietzsche right now and imagine him in the club walking up to someone and being like, “I teach you the Superman.”

Finally, after I was done, I realized that before starting the book, I literally had no idea whatsoever what Nietzsche’s philosophy really was. That’s sort of like comparing the last day of class to the first day of class.

I remember when I heard another person wearing all black and a beret say, in a raspy cigarette-stained voice, to someone with a mustache that curled up on the sides with a faked British accent, “God is dead and we have killed him.” As a bystander in that moment I thought to myself, “Oh my, look how smart I am. I know that what he said is Nietzsche.” And then I read the book and realized that there was A LOT more going on.

For some reason, I thought “Zarathustra” was going to be some nonfiction book explicitly lining out the absurdism of God and all that kind of stuff, that it was going to be in rigid academic writing, and that I was going to feel very serious the whole time.

I imagined myself scoffing at things. I would be all, “Hmph. Yes. Well, I guess. Ugh.” That’s not what ended up happening at all. It’s sort of analogous to when you read the description of a class on SISWEB and you think, “I totally have a general idea about this class. Nothing is going to appall me.” And then you get to class and read the syllabus and realize, “Nope. Not at all.”

So, on that note, I wish everyone great success in all their classes this quarter. It may be a slow journey, but in the end you will feel super proud that you did it. Remember, knowledge is something that no one can take away from you.

At the end of reading Nietzsche, I felt like I accomplished something, even if that was just the ability to smirk when people talk about Nietzsche. Go on, friends, conquer your first day of school! Consume the knowledge!

As Nietzsche wrote, “And this meaneth to me knowledge: all that is deep shall ascend — to my height! — Thus Spake Zarathustra” (135). Now, go find yourself a beret, conjugate “to speak” incorrectly and get on with your quarter.

To wear berets and scoff at things with EREN KAVVAS you should email her at ebkavvas@ucdavis.edu.