’Green Jackets’ monitor campus public spaces for COVID compliance

As Binghamton University strives to keep the number of positive COVID-19 cases in check, and as COVID-19 fatigue has become an issue, the Division of Student Affairs, in collaboration with Binghamton University Police, has trained and activated “Green Jackets” to help.

“We turned our attention in a huge way to non-compliance and came up with the concept of the COVID Compliance Response Team (CCRT),” said Randall M-J Edouard, assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students. “This is a group that we put forward to assist us in monitoring exactly what is going on and that is consistent around campus to help us combat non-compliance with public health guidelines.”

“We felt it would be great to bring student development into the enforcement aspect of compliance,” said Pete Nardone, manager of the Union and co-director of the CCRT program with Marc Leniek, University Police lieutenant. “It turns into having developmental conversations about compliance.”

The CCRT members are graduate students — 17 were selected following interviews — trained on key issues, Edouard said. “We call them Green Jackets, and this program has been very successful so far,” he said.

“We chose grad students because of the level of maturity and professionalism that comes from being a grad student and a role model,” Nardone said.

Members were trained on responsibilities, the University’s social norms campaign, social media monitoring, campus routes, assertiveness, situational awareness and bias training before they began their shifts in late September. Nardone also shadowed the teams as they eased into their roles.

“The training wasn’t just for one day. It’s ongoing because I talk with the group every day, including the weekends,” Nardone said. “Sometimes it’s just about administrative things, but also from a developmental perspective: How are we retooling their skills? What locations are they monitoring and how are these conversations going? We’re looking for consistency.”

The Green Jackets walk around public spaces on campus to help ensure social distancing and the wearing of face coverings. “They want to have good conversations with other students about what we should be doing to hold ourselves accountable,” Edouard said.

For Leniek, the CCRT members are providing guidance to help the campus keep its COVID-19 numbers low. “They’ve been trained on how to speak with the public and how to approach non-compliant individuals in a way that gains compliance,” he said. “I see them as University ambassadors.”

The CCRT is monitoring gatherings on campus, starting with a list of all approved gatherings, but also those that crop up organically.

For example, during the two-week pause there were more people outside at the track, said Nardone, so that area was added to the teams’ assignment.

“They adjust to those locations and conversations,” he said. “We also have to find balance with the community. If they see a student nursing a beverage, yes that student is technically eating because they’re holding the beverage for a long time, but the CCRT will provide guidance to those individuals, such as by asking them to drink under their mask with a straw. Or if a student is walking down the hallway eating an apple, we prefer the student would sit and eat it at a designated eating location.”.

The individual teams, seen walking in pairs around campus, deliver a lot of social norming reminders, Nardone said. “And they also tell students when they’re doing a great job, like if they are socially distancing with masks on after eating.”

CCRT reports go to both the Dean of Students Office and University Police. Two teams are deployed all around campus from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.

“The CCRT has a recording and reporting process, and in that process we’re trying to collect data so we know where to deploy these folks,” Edouard said.

Heat mapping with the help of Professor Sang Won Yoon and Assistant Professor Yong Wang in the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering and the Binghamton University Dining Services density tracking system are also providing data about how crowded a place is getting to be.

“We can pick up what the locations and peak times where we’re seeing a lot of density are, say between 1 and 3 p.m. in the Union,” Nardone said.

“If we start developing hot spots like around the track with the nice weather or in the University Libraries, we’ll make sure the CCRT is going to those areas,” Leniek said. “For instance, various departments or community members will contact University Police regarding areas that are not complying with the COVID-19 guidelines. The CCRT is then sent to these areas, such as the main library, to help augment the staff. Our main goal is to keep the University open.”

“We have a shared Google folder filled with routes, new routes and resources and that CCRT members use to communicate with one another and to input daily activity logs,” Nardone said. “It helps us know what behaviors we’re picking up so we can report and track them.”

There are three levels of interaction by the CCRT, Edouard explained. Level 1 is for minor non-compliance, Level 2 is for follow-up, reinforcement and large groups. “Thus far, we have only had Level 1 and 2 interactions. Our CCRT has not had to call University Police for a Level 3 non-compliance issue to date.”

“We’re not getting a ton of pushback,” Nardone said. “When they’re spoken to, folks have been mostly quiet and they’re pretty compliant when we remind them what we’re seeing.

“We’re also offering up the CCRT to help with compliance at the Events Center on Election Day,” Nardone added. “They’re going to support that effort from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and we hope they’ll have a presence at the door and when the line is snaking through. We anticipate some other opportunities in the spring.”

“So far, the cooperation has been great,” Edouard said. “We’re very excited about this program. We know that this is critical to us keeping to a low infection rate.”