A committee on campus was established in efforts to change Pace’s smoking policies.

“We have put this committee together because of complaints from students at SGA meetings,” Employee and Labor Relations Manager of Pace’s Human Recourses Anna Vidiaev said.

So far, the committee only has one active, student member and has conducted its first meeting.  Vidiaev explained that the committee’s purpose is not to ban smoking, rather, to review the existing policy and see if any changes should be made.  However, they need more students to voice their opinions on the ban so that can come to a decision.

The changes will effect each campus differently as there may be more smokers on one Pace campus than another.

According to a survey taken last week, some students have voiced that they believe that smoking is a problem on campus even though 35 out of 40 Pleasantville students polled don’t smoke. 27 of the 35 say that they sometimes smoke cigarettes in social situations.  8 of those 35 only smoke when stressed or anxious.

“If smoking is banned right now it wouldn’t affect me but eventually it probably would because sometimes when I get stressed at the library I like to go out and smoke a cigarette, “sophomore communications arts major Kayce DeTemple said.

Other students feel that it is still an unfair rule to implement.

“I think that the intentions are good but that it’s wrong for them to put restrictions like that on people our age,” junior psychology major Jill Ferro said.

Although the legal age to buy cigarettes in New York is 18, not everyone chooses to smoke. Therefore, alterations to the smoking rules on campus are being considered to better benefit everyone on all Pace campuses.

According to Vidiaev the committee is not going to make a decision without input from more students.