A message providing updates on campus zones and enforcement mechanisms

Dear Stanford community,

As President Tessier-Lavigne shared last week, Stanford has established zones on the main campus to support the resumption of additional research and learning activities in accordance with public health requirements issued by the State of California that call for limiting nonessential visitors to campus.

The university previously announced that the campus zones program would begin on September 1 with the installation of STAY SAFE signage across the main campus. That was to be followed by full implementation beginning on September 8 when all faculty, staff, students and postdocs approved to be on campus, along with family members and other affiliates living in restricted zones, would be required to visibly display their Stanford ID.

We are delaying the requirement to display a visible ID at this time, recognizing the challenges for some members of our community in obtaining ID cards and in order to allow more time for education and awareness building about the campus zones program and for further consultation with university stakeholders. We continue to welcome your feedback as we work to support the health and safety of our community.

More information about the distribution of lanyards, the availability of ID cards, and other approved means of meeting the ID requirement will be shared in the coming days.

In addition, we have received a number of questions in recent days about enforcement, both of the campus zones program and of the compact that graduate and undergraduate students have been asked to sign as part of our efforts to keep the campus as safe as possible.

We want to clarify that Stanford’s Department of Public Safety will not be the primary organization responsible for enforcing the student compact or the zones program. The compact will be enforced by the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Affairs per the process described on this site, emphasizing educational and restorative interventions for all but the most serious violations. As communicated to students on Thursday, Sept. 3, next week students will receive an outline of potential compact violations and what possible educational interventions and administrative actions could be taken for different levels of violation.

The campus zones program will be enforced by civilian Stanford representatives who will primarily focus on educating the public about the program and ensuring that they adhere to the zones designated for their use. As President Tessier-Lavigne said in his message last week, the focus of the zones program is educational and health-promotional, not punitive.

We want to emphasize that DPS officers will only become involved in enforcement of either the compact or the campus zones program if police dispatch is called or if there is egregious and deliberate violation of county or state public health orders.

We thank you for your partnership and contributions to Stanford. We hope you all enjoy a fulfilling Labor Day weekend.

Sincerely,

Russell Furr
Associate Vice Provost, Environmental Health & Safety

Mona Hicks
Senior Associate Vice Provost and Dean of Students