The college is taking steps to review its campus smoking policy in order to assess how effective the current policy is and if any changes need to be made.
College Vice Presidents Kenneth Levison and Robert Bonfiglio are working with Student Association to create a smoking task force that will include students, faculty and staff interested in obtaining feedback from all members of the Geneseo community.
"Questions have been raised about how effective the policy is and whether or not we are following the best practices possible," said Levison. "The task force is aimed at answering these questions and bringing about any changes deemed necessary."
The current policy bans smoking in and near all buildings on campus. Although several state laws and union regulations must be complied with, Levison hopes to "see if, within the context we have to work with, we can bring about positive changes to the smoking policy on the school campus."
Many students, smokers and not, appear to be content with the policy as it stands, saying it already does an adequate job of protecting the community from dangerous second-hand smoke.
"I rarely see people smoke - it's not a big problem," said freshman Brittney Ross, adding that the policy requiring smokers to stand away from buildings should be better enforced.
"I think the policy is fine. If they were to [make it stricter] there might be problems," said junior Stephanie Medina.
Several smokers, however, voiced issues that the task force will likely look into, including the fact that although the college requests that people smoke roughly 25 feet away from buildings, most ashtrays are located right next to the doorways.
Once the members of the smoking task force are finalized, students will have an opportunity to further voice opinions regarding smoking policy.