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The use of e-cigarettes is currently not allowed on Grand View’s campus. According to Vice President for Student Affairs Jay Prescott, this decision was officially made around three years ago. Due to recent surges in the popularity of this cigarette substitute, some questions have surfaced as to whether changes should be considered for this ruling.

E-cigarettes are used to simulate the experience of smoking, but they hold a cartridge with a heater that vaporizes liquid nicotine rather than burning tobacco. The end lights up like a regular cigarette, and the foggy vapor the user exhales has the same appearance as cigarette smoke.

Users refer to the experience of “vaping” as very similar to the real thing. Kristin Gordon, a gas station attendant at the Git–N–Go on East 42^nd Street, said she sees e-cigarette purchases on a daily basis.

“We don’t sell a large amount of e-cigarettes, but we sell at least one or two a week,” she said.

Taylor Mitchell, a junior at Grand View University and a current e-cigarette user, said he believes “e-cigs” have many benefits over traditional tobacco but acknowledges that they can also have negative effects.

“I’ve heard that some people have negative reactions to the propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin that’s in the e-cigs,” he said.

Considering the question on whether e-cigarettes should or should not be allowed on campus, Prescott emphasized the reason behind the current ban of e-cigarettes.

“We want to stay in line with a smoke-free environment, in accordance to the laws of the state of Iowa,” Prescott said. “There’s different characteristics of smoke and vapor, but [e-cigarettes] fall, for us, in that category of a smoke free environment.”

According to Prescott, chances of e-cigarettes being allowed on campus any time soon are unlikely.