Starting today and continuing throughout the week, Vox Populi will provide you with a series of posts on each GUSA candidate running for Senate. We start here with the senators running for Village A dorms, Nate Tisa and Lawrence Slusky. Look back later today for Southwest Quad and Alumni Square!

Lawrence Slusky (COL ’14): The Voice of the Students

Slusky is a government major who is very involved in community outreach and volunteering.  He hopes to bring his passion for government and familiarity with the intricacies of the federal legislative process to the local atmosphere of Georgetown University.

His top priority centers on an improvement of Leo’s dining hall.  Specifically, he aims to reduce student discontentment associated with the recent staff scandal.  Slusky plans to work with the Georgetown administration to foster a happier work environment for the dining hall’s staff in order to generate a better dining experience for the students.

When asked about his interest in running for GUSA, Slusky responded that “students need a reliable voice to represent us and I’m looking forward to becoming that voice.”

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At some point between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. yesterday morning, an apartment in Village A was burglarized, with a student reporting a small amount of cash missing from her wallet. The public safety alert does not specify the nature of the incident, though the vast majority of robberies in the apartment complex have been a result of unlocked doors. Additionally, the victim was not harmed in the incident.

The alert also fails to mention where in Village A the robbery occurred, as apartments with an entrance on Prospect Street were robbed on multiple occasions last year before the Department of Public Safety ramped up security measures in the area.

DPS requests that anyone who has information regarding this incident, or who noticed any suspects before or after the incident, contact them immediately at (202) 687-4343.

Between 5:45 and 6:00 p.m. Friday, a forcible fondling occurred at Village A, according to a public safety alert about the incident. At 6:19 p.m. a student called DPS to report the incident. DPS and MPD responded to investigate and search for the suspect, who was last seen walking west between Leo O’Donovan Hall and Southwest Quad. The search for the suspect was not successful. The victim was not physically harmed during the incident.

A witness described the suspect as a slim, non-student, college-age, 5’8″ black male, wearing a lime green jacket. The witness description also noted the suspect’s crooked teeth.

DPS requests that anyone who has information regarding this incident, or who noticed any suspects before or after the incident, to contact them immediately at (202) 687-4343.

The Department of Public Safety and the Metropolitan Police Department are stepping up their presence near Village A following the rash of burglaries over the past few weeks in the area.

In an email sent on Friday to Village A residents, Stephanie Lynch, director of Residence Life, and Joseph Smith, associate director of DPS, announced that more officers will patrol Village A during the overnight hours. In addition, DPS will increase its patrols of the perimeter of the apartment complex.

“New security observation posts will be staffed on Prospect Street and Library Walk,” wrote Lynch and Smith, who added that “enhanced lighting features” will also be installed in and around Village A.

According to multiple student reports, DPS officers have also begun to conduct “courtesy checks” in Village A. While walking through in the area at night, the patrolling officers allegedly asked the students to present their GOCards. Safety awareness posters that read, “See something? Say something!” have also appeared in Village A in recent days.

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At approximately 1:30 a.m. this morning, a female student was walking back to her Village A apartment when an unidentified suspect attempted to force his way into the residence.

According to a Public Safety Alert, the suspect “followed the student home [and] grabbed her arm” before trying to enter the apartment. After a male student forced the suspect away from the apartment, the suspect fled. The suspect is described as a 5’9″ or 5’10″ Hispanic male in his mid-twenties, who wore a white sweatshirt, blue jeans, and white sneakers.

Last night’s burglary is the latest in a string of four other similar crimes in Village A since October 16. At last night’s Village A town hall meeting hosted by Residence Life and the Department of Public Safety, DPS Officer Shannon Kasparak claimed that two additional DPS officers would patrol the area between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Additional reporting by Emily Fink.

7:15 p.m. update: According to an email sent to Village A residents by Area Coordinate Cory Peterson, the Office of Residence Life and the Department of Public Safety will host a town hall meeting in the Village A community room tomorrow night at 9 p.m. to discuss the recent robberies.

Original post: At 12:22 a.m. this morning, another student reported an attempted burglary in Village A.

According to the Public Safety Alert, the student confronted an intruder, who fled in an unknown direction. A search of the premises revealed that the intruder, who was described as a 6’1″ black male with a shaved head, did not take anything after entering the apartment’s unlocked door.

While the suspect is still at large, both DPS and MPD are investigating the incident. The burglary is the fourth attempted in Village A since October 16.

According to a Public Safety Alert sent out tonight, a Village A apartment was burglarized on Tuesday evening.

The incident occurred sometime between 5:00 and 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and was reported to the Department of Public Safety at 8:04 p.m. that evening.

According to the alert, entry to the apartment was made through an unlocked door. A resident reported that his laptop computer was stolen. MPD also responded to the scene and is working in conjunction with DPS.

This is the second time that a laptop computer was taken from an unlocked Village A in the past week.

According to a public safety alert sent out tonight by the Department of Public Safety, a Village A apartment was burglarized early Saturday morning.

The apartment was unoccupied at the time of the burglary and a door to the apartment was unlocked. Due to the residence being unoccupied, DPS had no reported description of the suspect.

A resident of the apartment reported to DPS and the Metropolitan Police Department that a laptop computer had been taken from inside his book bag.

MPD is currently investigating the incident in cooperation with DPS.

The graffiti that appeared on the Village A rooftops last week is gone, and with it, all potential community charges.

Area Coordinator Cory Peterson, who sent an email to rooftop residents last week about the incident, told students on Friday they would not be charged for the graffiti clean-up.

“Thank you to those who emailed and stopped in the office to chat about the graffiti and your knowledge of when it appeared. And thank you to those residents who voluntarily cleaned it up,” he wrote in an email. “As a result of the quick community response, the matter was addressed and no community charges are necessary.”

Oddly enough, Georgetown isn’t the only D.C. school with response-to-vandalism problems.

GW’s Residential Property Management office emailed students in the Ivory Tower dorm last Friday, threatening to levy community charges on all residents for damages to the building. However, the message “was not authorized,” according to a successive email sent Friday night. Now, GW plans to reevaluate its listserv email policies.

Photo: Georgetown Housing

[Editor's note: The photo attached to this post is not the graffiti in question, but since it was on the Village A rooftops a few weeks ago, we figure it's close enough.]

After graffiti appeared on the Village A rooftops this week—and presumably startled tour groups—Office of Residence Life Area Coordinator Cory Peterson sent out one hell of an email to rooftop residents.

“The 400 level rooftops are an important part of the daily tours given of Georgetown and the graffiti has demonstrated an unconscionable lack of regard for the property of his or her community,” he wrote.

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