Today, Vox will complete the series of blurbs on students running for GUSA Senate. Yesterday we ran candidates from Village A, here we have the seven candidates for the Southwest Quadrangle: Sam Greco, James Gadea, Michael Mezzino, Jemm Dela Cruz, Nolan Diconti, and Jack Manning. Max Malec could not be reached for an interview.

Sam Greco (SFS ’15): Reform Leo’s!

Sam Greco is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service, thinking of majoring in International Politics. He previously served in GUSA for half a year as a Senator-At-Large. He is running for reelection because he believes GUSA has an important role to play in serving as a check on the administration.

“Whenever I talk to students I hear the same thing, the administration will put their other pursuits over the undergraduates and that couldn’t be a bigger problem in my opinion.” Greco said. “So I’m running to make sure the university considers the students as their top concern in any decision they make.”

On Grecos’ agenda is passing the Student Code of Conduct reform and reforming Leo’s. Reforming Leo’s was something Greco worked on previously during his term in GUSA. “The university has a large amount of influence they can put on ARAMARK that they’re not doing at the moment, and we need to get on them to make those changes.”

Greco points to his experience in GUSA and SFS academic council as an asset which will allow him to hit the ground running. “I know the ropes, I know who you have to talk to to get things done. There’s no learning period with me.”

He feels his biggest accomplishments in GUSA include supporting the Code of Conduct reform and fighting to eliminate the sophomore meal plan requirements. “That’s just an example of a time I was really fighting for something that would benefit students and although we were up against the administration I’m not done fighting.”

James Gadea (SFS, ’16): Let’s Go Green

James Gadea is a freshman in the SFS, thinking of majoring in International History. He lives on the Culture and Performance Living Learning Community in Reynolds.

Gadea places a strong emphasis on environmental impact and creating a green future for Georgetown. “I want to start an environmental program.” Gadea said. “[It] would plant a lot of trees and do some landscaping for the University, so that in 20 years or so, there would be a lot more trees on campus and make our campus a lot more greener.”

Gadea feels that around campus there are very few trees, which can have huge a large positive environmental impact. Getting this project off the ground would be among Gadea’s first priorities, “working with the administration, seeing if we can get some funding to do some planting. Planting trees is a relatively low cost investment and it has a high pay off because in 20 years the campus would be significantly nicer.”

Gadea would like to plant these trees in the different grassy areas around campus. In high school Gadea researched the impact trees could have on lead in the soil, which started his interested in environmental causes. “I know the university is trying to go greener, so I think this would go well with what they’re already working on.” Gadea acknowledges his project is looking for a long term payoff and as much as he wants to make current students happy, he also wants “to put my concerns to the use of future generations as well.”

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Photos by John Flanagan and Sam Buckley

At 10:30 p.m. yesterday, an unknown man attempted to rob a faculty member in the inner courtyard of the Southwest Quad.

According to a public safety alert, the suspect approached the victim from behind and attempted to grab her purse. After he saw another person approaching, he pushed the victim to the ground and fled. The unnamed faculty member sustained injuries to her hip, shoulder, and knee.

The suspect is described as a six-foot, one-inch white male with a light beard and thin build, wearing “a gray hooded sweatshirt, dark pants and white shoes.”

As we mentioned in our GUSA Roundup earlier today, there were a series of thefts in McCarthy the evening of Halloween.

According to Joseph Smith, the Associate Director of the Department of Public Safety, there were seven separate victims in McCarthy.  Items stolen include “laptops, cell phones, an ipod, shoes, and sunglasses.”

Smith says the investigation is ongoing, and DPS is working with the Metropolitan Police Department on it.

This isn’t the first time the Southwest Quad has been the target of serial thieves recently; there were two separate theft sprees in the Quad this July.

A classic criminal hotbed

July has seen a bit of an uptick from the campus’s summer crime lull. As of the 16th—the last time the Department of Public Safety’s Daily Crime Log [PDF] was updated—there had been 16 incidents reported, just three less than were reported in the entire month of June (you can see them all mapped out on our July Campus Crime Map).

Curiously, seven of the 16 incidents occurred in the Southwest Quad, mostly in a couple of spurts:

On Monday, July 6 the following incidents were reported in Kennedy Hall:

• 1:13 a.m. “Theft of cash, clothes and shoes”
• 11:47 p.m. “Theft of camera”
• 11:47 p.m. “Theft of cash”

On Tuesday, July 14, a laptop was stolen from “an unsecured room” in Kennedy.

On Wednesday, July 15, the following incidents were reported in Reynolds Hall:

• 3:40 p.m. “Theft of a room key and cell phone from an unsecured dorm room”
• 4:42 p.m. “Theft of an iPod (valued at approximately $250) and cash ($235) from an unsecured dorm room”
• 5:40 p.m. “Theft of a cell phone (valued at approximately $100) and cash ($160) from an unsecured dorm room”

It certainly seems like someone’s targeting the Quad. When asked about the thefts, DPS Associate Director Joseph Smith wrote in an email:

[A]s they are active investigations it would not be prudent for me to conjecture on the potential interrelatedness of the incidents. DPS is paying special attention to these areas and has been in communication with relevant University personnel in an effort to deter further acts of theft in these areas.

A staffer at the Kennedy RHO said there are a variety of groups staying in the Quad right now, some of them high schoolers, some older. A representative from the Office of Housing Operations, which handles the accommodations of summer programs, said they could not disclose which groups were staying there.

Georgetown’s smoking policy has always prohibited lighting up within 25 feet of a building entrance, but presumably with the exception of  new measures to keep the Hospital Campus smoke-free, they’ve never, er, been enforced.

Well on Friday, Southwest Quad coordinator Bill Huff emailed SWQ students to tell them the jig is up:

“Recently, there have been increased complaints about the presence of smoke inside the lobbies and in some cases, on the lower floors of residence halls in the Southwest Quad. Due to the unique nature of the doors, when individuals smoke outside the door, the smoke and air is sucked into the building and circulated through the ventilation system. … All violations will be documented in accordance with the Code of Conduct and will face judicial sanctions.”

“Please consider this your one and only warning,” he wrote.

So SWQ kids, prepare to leave the cozy breezeway between Kennedy and Reynolds and brave the exposed benches for that cigarette, because it sounds like Huff isn’t going to play.