CLARION, Pa. -- About 50 Clarion University of Pennsylvania students protested a new ban on smoking on state-owned campuses today, calling the prohibition that forbids lighting up even outdoors unfair and unenforceable.

Students rallied for an hour outside the Gemmell student union, then marched to the campus library with a pair of campus police officers in tow.

Many of the protestors lit up in a red-brick plaza outside Gemmell, openly defying the new policy across the 14 schools in the State System of Higher Education.

University officials handed them yellow cards warning them that they risk fines or disciplinary action. Some of the protesters responded by putting tobacco on the cards, rolling them up and lighting them so they could be smoked.

Some pointedly noted that the title of the state's new smoking ban is the Clean Indoor Air Act.

"I'm standing outside. I should have the right to smoke outside," said Jon DiSalvo, 23, a sophomore computer science major from Vandergrift.

State system officials say their new policy represents their reading of the new state anti-smoking law that took effect Thursday.

Other Western Pennsylvania campuses affected by the ban are Slippery Rock, California, Edinboro and Indiana.