There’s a new trend flaring up at the College of DuPage. Vaping, the inhaling and exhaling of smoke from an electronic cigarette, has become a staple in the hallways of campus. While e-cigarettes produce water vapor instead of a cigarette smoke, COD police say the relatively new habit still violates the campus’ no-smoking policies.

Electronic cigarettes have risen to popularity in recent years and allow users to get a similar feel to traditional cigarettes. Users have dubbed the practice as “vaping.”

COD police Lieutenant Joe Girten says personal vehicles are the only places students are allowed to vape or smoke.

Girten explained that like cigarette smoking students can be fined for vaping.

“We have two officers that walk around [campus] looking [for violators],” Girten said.

As for vaping inside a classroom, Girten said that a student or professor would have to report it before an officer would walk inside a classroom.

In March 2009, the College of DuPage adopted a tobacco-free campus policy.

The policy states that the “use of tobacco and tobacco-related products (including electronic cigarettes) is prohibited on all College of DuPage premises, in all indoor College facilities and in all College vehicles.”

Luke Caron, 19, a welding major, has seen students vaping in the hallways and in class, and finds it repulsive. Caron believes vaping is not an issue of police enforcement but one of public courtesy.

“You can give someone a ticket, and they pay it, and it’s all said and done,” Caron said. “But they won’t change until they learn that respect.”

Youmana Elboghady,18, a psychology major, agrees students should respect the school and not vape inside. However, she disagrees with the campus smoking policy.

Elboghady, a smoker, finds the fact that she must take her smoking habit off campus “inconveniencing.”

“The school shouldn’t [regulate] what students inhale into their own body,” Elboghady said.

Ibn Moses, 21, psychology major, is also a smoker and does not completely agree with COD’s tobacco policy.

“I understand that they are strict,” Moses said. “But they are literally [fining us] to make money,” Moses said.

Smokers in publicly-funded college all over Illinois have to deal with the same issues Moses and Elboghady face.

Last July, the state of Illinois implemented the Smoke-Free Campus Act. The act states “smoking is prohibited on each campus of a State-supported institution of higher education.”

However, unlike COD’s policy, the act does not specifically target electronic cigarettes.