As many colleges and universities welcome students back to campus for the fall, some have seen big outbreaks of Covid-19. While several have blamed the outbreaks on students who violate social-distancing guidelines, others have deployed students to help enforce the rules.
The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, for example, has hired teams of student “public-health ambassadors” to enforce Covid-19 regulations among their classmates. “If we’re going to be successful in preventing them [outbreaks] from happening, it has to be peers working with peers,” said Laura Blake Jones, the university’s dean of students.
Ambassadors work in teams of two to three people, including both students and staff members, on four-hour shifts. They walk around the most populous areas of campus and remind students to wear masks and socially distance.
The teams are accompanied by employees of the university’s Division of Public Safety and Security. After facing pushback from students about police involvement in the program, the university said no sworn or armed police officers would accompany the ambassadors.
Complaints about students’ noncompliance with the safety rules flow into a university hotline. Students who are identified in more than one complaint receive a warning letter before facing more-serious punishment, and the university had sent 17 letters as of Friday, Jones said. She added that most concerns called into the hotline came from students, not community members.
“We’re cautiously optimistic, but we also know that this is a huge challenge,” Jones said. “Students are very inclined to socialize.”
The University of Miami, in Florida, has hired 75 students at $10 an hour each to help enforce safety guidelines among their peers. Anna Davis, a senior who is studying public health and psychology, leads a team of other students. She said she saw the position as an opportunity to educate classmates and “keep campus open for the remainder of the semester,” by ensuring students are taking steps to avoid an outbreak, and thus a shutdown.
“It’s lucky that we have the opportunity to enforce these rules,” Davis said. As a public-health major, she said, students educating other students may be more effective than penalizing or shaming them.
Education, Not Enforcement
The university’s ambassadors work two-hour shifts in five zones around the university’s busiest areas, such as the library and the student center.
While Davis worried students would criticize her or her peers for their roles, she said they have received “mostly positive responses” in the two weeks she’s worked as an ambassador. “Telling people that wearing masks and following the rules is in their best interest is helpful,” she said, rather than threatening punishment.
As at Michigan, the student ambassadors at Miami are not expected to break up large gatherings or keep track of individual students. Instead, they are instructed to alert the local police or campus administrators if they run into “repeat offenders” or big groups.
“It’s going really well so far, and I think our students are really responding in a positive way,” said Patricia A. Whitely, vice president for student affairs at Miami. The ambassadors’ main role, she said, is to educate and provide tools such as hand sanitizer and masks.
Ambassadors aren’t asked to monitor anything outside their assigned zones, and the university has urged property managers around the campus to help enforce rules. “We’re trying to tell students they can’t be selfish and need to think about others,” Whitely said.
Joseph D. Greenwell, vice president for student affairs at Columbia University, said its ambassador program also focuses on “education rather than enforcement.”
Columbia’s ambassadors are not paid, and the university is “constantly recruiting” new ones. “The ambassadors play a role in the larger comprehensive plan to create this community ethos around health and care,” Greenwell said. “How to educate oneself around responsible behavior and how to be role models.”
If ambassadors see someone is not wearing a face covering or is breaking another rule, they are taught to “provide information.” If the person doesn’t comply, ambassadors are to report the violator to the dean of students through an online form.
“My hope,” Greenwell said, “is that most students have a dialogue, maybe they forgot their face covering, they can go to our public-safety or other offices and get a face covering.”
