CLARION, Pa. -- Having to leave a classroom building for a smoke is one thing, said Rebekah Alviani, a Clarion University of Pennsylvania sophomore. Being told to leave campus altogether is quite another.

So yesterday, after leaving her work-study job, she headed straight for the student center to join 50 of her peers as they protested a sweeping new policy that forbids smoking, even outdoors, at Pennsylvania's state-owned universities.

Many of the students lit up in a red-brick plaza outside the Gemmell Student Complex, openly defying rules imposed last week across the campuses of the 14 schools in the State System of Higher Education.

University officials handed the smokers yellow cards warning 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.

"We passed them around," said Ms. Alviani, 19, of Clarion, whose father teaches on the campus. "It tasted terrible."

"Many of us try to be courteous to nonsmokers. We realize they don't like it," she said. "But my thing is 'I'll respect you if you respect me.' These are our rights."

Across the State System, as some students protested, administrators began implementing a policy that critics complained was so sudden they were notified only hours before it took effect Thursday.

Signs are still being readied declaring the State System campuses with 110,000 students entirely smoke-free. Officials at both California and Indiana universities of Pennsylvania said workers will remove dozens of cigarette receptacles from the campuses.

The new policy has its supporters, too. Even as critics at Clarion planned another rally for Thursday, a separate group on campus said it will protest in support of the ban.

As she and a friend ate lunch inside Gemmell, Rebecca Burgess, 20, a junior from Gibsonia, said those who don't smoke have rights, too.

"It's not fair to us. I don't like walking and having smoke blow in my face," she said.

Kenn Marshall, a State System spokesman, said the policy approved by Chancellor John Cavanaugh represents the system's read of a new statewide smoking law, enacted last week.

Mr. Marshall said the State System, which holds some classes and events outdoors, considers all its grounds to be educational facilities and thus covered by the law.

That interpretation goes beyond what is in force on other public campuses in Pennsylvania, including Penn State University and the University of Pittsburgh.

Both schools say the new state law will not change their policies, which already forbid smoking indoors but allow it outdoors away from building entrances and air-intake systems.

Yesterday, at Clarion, the protesters briefly marched to the campus library, shouting "What do we want? The right to smoke!" as a pair of campus police officers followed.

Jon DiSalvo, 23, a sophomore from Vandergrift, said smoking is his addiction, he loves it and those who don't like what he exhales can step a couple of feet back.

"The walkway is five feet. I'm maybe a foot and a half wide," he said. "There's three other feet they could be walking on."