The Illinois Student Senate, or ISS, may create a committee to investigate student opinions on the University’s smoking policy.

Senator emeritus Brock Gebhardt, who will be chairman of the committee if ISS supports creating it, said the student senate “wanted to form a committee to show the institution what the student opinion is.”

Gebhardt, who is a member of the Illini Media Board, said the committee will conduct focus groups with students and examine other universities’ smoking policies. He said the referendum was a good way to begin discussing a smoking ban but is only the first step in changing the University’s smoking policy.

“The referendum was good about initiating discussion,” he said. “We want to put together a report and suggest the best smoking policy that’s going to work … and be representative of student opinion on campus.”

The chancellor’s office currently has a committee investigating the smoking policy. The committee, chaired by associate chancellor Mike DeLorenzo, has an undergraduate and graduate student on it. David Pileski, student body president, said ISS’s committee will not overshadow the chancellor’s committee.

“I think their final recommendations may differ, but in terms of their overall mission, I don’t see them overlapping terribly much,” he said. “The student senate has on occasion created its own autonomous group, and a lot of times it’s been very helpful and beneficial.”

Gebhardt emphasized that this committee will be neutral when proposing recommendations.

“The committee is going to try and approach this issue from as neutral a position as possible,” he said. “We have nonsmokers on the committee as well as current smokers … and I’m looking forward to investigating from such a neutral viewpoint.”