The University of Colorado will keep the Boulder campus open to the public on 4/20 this year for the first time since officials in 2012 ramped up efforts to snuff the once-massive marijuana smokeout.

In a letter posted to CU’s website, Chancellor Phil DiStefano said he felt that a lack of activity on 4/20 in the past three years prompted the decision to keep the campus open this April 20, which falls on a Monday.

“I told you last year that I hoped campus closures would not be necessary in the near-future and that we could go about our daily business on April 20 as we would any other day,” DiStefano wrote. “That time has come.”

While the campus will be open, CU’s Norlin Quad — which has been the epicenter of the smokeout that in past years drew 10,000 people — still will be closed on the afternoon of April 20, and entering the quad could result in trespassing charges.

CU spokesman Ryan Huff said it’s possible that other fields also could be closed if police notice crowds gathering. In 2012 — the first year the campus was closed to the public and Norlin was roped off — about 300 smokers marched onto campus and gathered to smoke on a small field near Duane Physics.

Huff said that the university would not employ any other methods to keep people from assembling for a smokeout. In the past, CU has tried everything from putting down fish-scented fertilizer to turning on sprinklers.

“We don’t have those kinds of plans for this year,” Huff said.

Citing the cost and safety concerns of thousands of people descending on the campus on 4/20, CU began closing it to the public in 2012. Several non-students fought the closure in court, but a Boulder judge ruled that CU had the right to close the campus to the public on 4/20.

The campus has been closed to anyone who is not a student or employee on April 20 every year since, effectively snuffing the 4/20 smokeout.

“I think anytime that you are trying to eliminate a large, unwanted gathering, you can’t do that in a one-year time frame,” Huff said. “It takes multiple years to show that you are serious about eliminating the event. In the three years campus has been closed to visitors, we have seen progress each year.”

Huff said there will still be a police presence, but that officers won’t be checking for IDs. Huff said he could not say how many officers would be on campus or where on campus they would be stationed.

“There will be a larger police presence than you would see on a normal school day,” Huff said.

The proliferation of sanctioned events on the 4/20 weekend in Denver and along the Front Range since marijuana was legalized in Colorado also played a part in the decision to keep the campus open.

“Our hope is that if somebody wants to partake in an activity that weekend or on April 20, they go to one of these sanctioned events,” Huff said.

Shawn Coleman, a Boulder-based consultant to the marijuana industry and a CU alum, said he opposed the closures while 4/20 was at least in part a political event to advocate for the legalization of marijuana.

“Instead of being together on the campus and shining a light on a social justice issue, people were just somewhere smoking weed,” Coleman said. “But the legalization of marijuana has never just been about smoking weed.”

But he said that with the goal of legalization realized and 4/20 taking on a less political atmosphere, Coleman agreed there were better locations to celebrate than on a college campus.

“It’s not all that different than Beer Fest,” Coleman said. “We’re moving toward 4/20 being about celebrating cannabis culture. That is more appropriate to be done off campus. The cannabis consumer is supposed to be 21 years old, so it is not a college-oriented thing to do.”

Wyatt Ryder, the chief of staff for the CU Student Government and the student representative for CU’s 4/20 panel, said he thinks the re-opening will go smoothly. While he’ss aware of CU’s 4/20 history, Ryder, as a junior, said he has never experienced a smokeout on campus.

“I truly believe it’s kind of been phased out of life at CU,” Ryder said. “It used to be a part of the culture of CU, but since marijuana has been legalized, I think the culture has definitely changed.”

With 4/20 falling on a weekday again for the first time since the 2012 closure, Ryder said he thinks students will be grateful for the open campus.

“No one want so to show their ID going from class to class,” Ryder said. “It would have been a big disruption to campus life had it occurred this year.”

Mitch Byars: 303-473-1329, byarsm@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/mitchellbyars