GWU Drinkers Who Muss the Bus May Be Asked to Pick Up the Tab

Students quickly asked whether people who were truly sick, not just sloppy, would have to pay. (No, just the intoxicated ones, de la Torre said.) "As long as they're drunk, I think it's fair," said Gabriel Seder, a sophomore from Maine.

Some said it would be reasonable to require students to clean up after themselves. "We pay so much to come here," Shah said. "It doesn't cost that much to clean up."

The university is trying to encourage safe behavior, sophomore Chad Swarthout said. "If the university wants to charge students who are intoxicated for causing damage to public property, I don't have any problem with that."

Besides, he said, the problem affects only a small number of students. "If it's affecting a large number of students," he said, "that's a sign of a bigger problem" than a grungy bus.

According to Snyder, vomiting on the shuttle bus happens two or three times a semester.

"It's not like I walk around and there's vomit everywhere," Merleaux said. "It's not ubiquitous." The whole thing seems like a big waste of time for administrators, she said, adding, "It's ridiculous!"

"It's random and stupid," sophomore Elena Perez said.

"They could be making policies about better stuff," Shah said.