The 40 students standing in a single file line outside of Redstone must now show their UVM IDs before they get on the bus to go downtown on a Saturday night. Transportation Services is checking students’ UVM IDs as a safety precaution as they board the CATS bus on weekend nights. “We’re not implementing a new policy, just stepping up the existing policy,” Director for Transportation and Parking Services Jim Barr said. The point of the buses is to provide safe transportation for students on Friday and Saturday nights and checking IDs is not to deny passage but to identify who is on the bus, Barr said. Green Mountain Concert Services employee Steve Johnson said that safety is a top concern for him when he checks the students’ IDs. “We’re not being nasty, we’re being proactive,” he said. Though safety is a concern, it is not the only reason why students’ IDs must be checked before students get on the bus, Speaker of the SGA Claire Chevrier said. “They are doing so in order to take away the anonymity factor of riding the bus,” Chevrier said. “This way if someone is very rowdy, violating a rule [or] has alcohol on the bus, then the school is able to hold them accountable for it.” Sophomore Julia Campbell said she doesn’t have a problem with the enforcement of this policy. “It’s not that hard,” she said. “I’ll have my ID with me anyways because I need it to get back into my dorm.” Transportation Services believes that student conduct has improved on buses because of increased communication with students through outlets like Residential Life and signs inside the bus, Barr said. “On Halloween weekend, other than a few people vomiting, we really haven’t had the assaults we’ve had in the past,” he said. Though Barr said there have been fewer incidences, Chevrier said the bus is still not as safe as it could be. “Students are not more rowdy this year than in previous years but that does not mean that things are okay,” she said.  “There have been issues on the shuttle for years with drivers and passengers not feeling safe because of the actions of a few students and unfortunately this has caused a need for precautionary measures like checking IDs.” “On Halloween weekend, other than a few people vomiting, we really haven’t had the assaults we’ve had in the past,” he said. Though Barr said there have been fewer incidences, Chevrier said the bus is still not as safe as it could be. “Students are not more rowdy this year than in previous years but that does not mean that things are okay,” she said.  “There have been issues on the shuttle for years with drivers and passengers not feeling safe because of the actions of a few students and unfortunately this has caused a need for precautionary measures like checking IDs.”