Keith Jones slept about 10 minutes Friday night.
He wasn’t dancing the night away. He wasn’t lying in bed worried about the football team’s performance on Saturday.
From 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. he was making sure activities at a Campus Center event didn’t get out of hand. From 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. he was making sure nobody jumped the fence to vandalize the new turf going into Spartan Stadium.
By 7 a.m. Jones was prepping to regulate crowds at Saturday’s football game.
Jones, a business and political science sophomore, is a Greencoat for the Department of Police and Public Safety, a band of students who work event security for everything from dances to Wharton Center performances - aptly dressed in green jackets marked “Event Security.”
In his third year with the program, he wasn’t expecting any surprises from the crowds streaming into the stadium.
“It’s a lot of fun, just the atmosphere of the students and people getting together,” Jones said. “You get to see stuff you wouldn’t normally see.
“It’s a good thing I just started drinking coffee.”
About 90 students - freshmen through doctoral candidates - dressed in their uniform green jackets early Saturday morning to keep things under control, reporting to the MSU Public Safety building by 7 a.m.
They station themselves around the stadium entryways before the game begins, rotating positions for each home game. The alternating gives their fellow Greencoats a chance to rejuvenate after working a day at the hectic student entryways.
After kickoff they disperse to various areas - the highest corners to the lowest ramp - watching for cleverly concealed alcohol.
The program began in the late 1980s and has kept growing. Some of the Greencoats who worked Saturday have worked for more than 10 years.
Some have firefighting and paramedic experience. Some want to be police officers, while others just want a paycheck.
MSU Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor, the program coordinator, said the students spent a week in training before classes started, learning techniques such as CPR, blood borne pathogens precautions, radio communication, traffic control and stadium checks.
Greencoats search for alcohol in all bags and purses, as well as some creative locations. People were asked to pat down their baggy pants and lift their shirts to make sure no alcohol was strapped to their waist.
“We couldn’t do it without all of them,” McGlothian-Taylor said. “They have a hard job, too. Each year problems go down, and that’s a good sign. People are getting used to us.
Police from East Lansing regulate traffic in the city when more than 72,000 people flood campus for football games. Meridian Township police keep control of tailgaters. Ingham County police help out inside the stadium walls. All 60 of MSU’s sworn officers don blue uniforms to keep things calm all over campus.
Business sophomore John Ingraham was working his first event Saturday as he checked bags and purses at Gate 3 of the stadium.
“I’m still not sure what to expect,” he said. “I really want to see the game, but I’ll do what needs to be done. They do a good job of preparing us for this.”
