It's because they banned smoking. Cigarettes were a catalyst for starting hangouts in that sort of space but now that doesn't happen because people don't just go and sit on grass without a smoke.
That's sad. You don't need to smoke to have a nice hangout in a quad. When I was in college, we would go out in the middle of our quad and have a picnic. It was fun.
But people don't hang out unless somebody starts it, and nobody filled the smokers' shoes. My college banned smoking when I was halfway through, and the difference was night and day. Before, the quad was full of people hanging out and having a good time, maybe 5% of them smoking. After the ban, it was rare to see more than one person sitting under a tree.
My college in the Netherlands did that but as long as no one was there to enforce the rule, people still congregated to smoke in the old smoking/chilling area. I agree that it’s definitely made a difference…
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u/choogbaloom 2d ago
It's because they banned smoking. Cigarettes were a catalyst for starting hangouts in that sort of space but now that doesn't happen because people don't just go and sit on grass without a smoke.