For some students who smoke, even the decreasing temperatures and impending snow are not enough for them kick the habit.

"It's a smoking campus," Lindsey Perry (senior-crime, law and justice) said while smoking a cigarette in front of Sackett Building.

However, according to a recent Penn State Pulse Survey, the percentage of students who used tobacco in a one-month period decreased greatly in a five-year period, from 37.3 percent in 1999 to 24 percent in 2004.

Andrea Dowhower, director and senior analyst for Student Affairs Research and Assessment, said enough time has passed to determine smoking is no longer considered as trendy as it once was by college students.

"Some lifestyles college students make now will follow them throughout their lives," Ellen Nagy, University Health Services (UHS) marketing manager, said.

Nagy said UHS has a program called the "Quit and Win Challenge," which works with individual students who want to quit or limit their smoking.

She added that in the program, there are "Quit Kits," which include smoking substitutes such as gum, quit tips, quit-line information and optional quit coaches who are students or employees who have successfully kicked the habit and would motivate program participants.

"One of our jobs at UHS is not only to heal students through clinics but to have them learn healthy ways to live," Nagy said. "Smoking is definitely not healthy."

Diana Ramos, community health educator for the office of health promotion and education, said despite advertisements on buses and fliers for quitting programs posted around campus, student turnout for the programs is low.

"People are, in general, informed about the harmful effects of smoking," she said, adding that this may be responsible for the lack of interest in the programs.