As a general rule, faculty and staff have the right to ask to see student ID cards at any time on campus. Most campus events require ID. Yet the new shuttle bus program is up and running without requiring identification.

The buses and Hughes Metroplex parking lot are seeing lots of traffic, and it seems everything is running smoothly. My one complaint is one that I’ve heard echoed by a few other students.

While the shuttle is convenient, air-conditioned and allows for less stress, the safety of its riders should be important. That’s why I’m questioning the university’s decision to allow students and anyone else, onto the buses without checking for student ID cards.

Officials from Wichita State are confident that with extra police patrols at the Metroplex, safety won’t be an issue, either in the lot north of campus or on board the buses.

But I’m left wondering, what if they are wrong?

Extra patrols in the lot may not necessarily curb the problem of non-students riding the buses.

And because campus is located around some neighborhoods that aren’t perceived as good places to hang out, it worries me that people with intentions to harm students could cause problems on the buses.

Is it really not worth it to take a minute and make sure everyone has an ID? Can safety really be considered an inconvenience? These are students, people that we’re talking about. People are important and should be safe, especially when those people are WSU students riding WSU buses.

I rode the shuttle for the first and second time this week, and it was a fairly good experience. I do like the idea of the shuttles. Riding them saves time and gas that would otherwise have been spent scouring parking lots and fighting over spaces, regardless of their proximity to your next class.

However, I think that we as students deserve to be sure about those riding next to us on the shuttle.

Don’t get me wrong— obviously, even knowing that everyone is a student won’t solve everything. But just seeing the black and yellow of a Shocker ID will make me feel a little better about having to take the bus to school.