Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) presidential candidates discussed how to best address the needs of the campus community during the executive presidential debate Feb. 8. 

Thomas Leonard (COL ’23) and Kole Wolfe (SFS ’24), candidates for the presidency of the GUSA Executive, answered questions about the GUSA budget, COVID-19 policies and campus safety. The GUSA Election Commission moderated the Zoom debate while both audience members and commission members asked questions. 

Leonard, who is running alongside vice presidential candidate Nirvana Khan (SFS ’24), currently serves as the vice president of the GUSA Executive and is involved in the transfer council, Georgetown Collegiate Investors (GCI) and intramural basketball. 

Wolfe, who is running alongside vice presidential candidate Zeke Ume-Ukeje (COL ’24), has no previous GUSA experience and is a writer for Thompson’s Towel, a student-run website devoted to covering Georgetown basketball. He is also a founder and board member of GEMA, the undergraduate function of the Georgetown Entertainment and Media Alliance, and a member of GCI. 

[Disclaimer: Kole Wolfe served as a Staff Writer for The Hoya in spring 2021.]

Marcella Wiggan (COL ’23), who is running as a write-in presidential candidate, answered questions through the Zoom chat function because write-in candidates who are not on the official ballot cannot participate in the debate. Wiggan, who is running with vice presidential candidate Otice Cander (COL ’23), is the MOSAIC Outreach Director, as well as the site visits committee chair for the Social Responsibility Network (SRN), a mentorship program for Georgetown College students interested in pursuing service-based careers. 

The Wolfe-Ume ticket plans to use approximately $20,000 to concentrate its efforts on student engagement, including funding for the Center for Social Justice (CSJ), according to Wolfe.

“It’s actually very similar to the previous administration’s plan, which was passed, so we don’t really think we’ll encounter many issues there,” Wolfe said at the debate. “A few changes here and there, but basically all the direct impact initiatives will remain, and we’ve added some CSJ-related funding.”

The Leonard-Khan campaign hopes to expand the budget to better support organizations both on and off campus, Leonard said.

“We have increased a number of funding as it relates to social programming,” Leonard said at the debate. “A big focus for Nirvana and I is working outside of the front gates of Georgetown to ensure that we are supporting mutual aid organizations, such as GU Mutual Aid.”

The candidates answered questions regarding residential safety concerns after a series of intrusions into residence halls last semester. Each candidate, including those involved in write-in campaigns, expressed a desire to improve current policy on residential safety concerns. 

Georgetown should adopt similar safety measures to other universities in an effort to increase campus safety, according to Wolfe.

“I’m not exactly sure what my stance is on abolishing GUPD,” Wolfe said. “I think that might be a bit ambitious at the moment, but just a few miles down the road at American, they’ve been implementing some safety measures that I think would be very useful at Georgetown. One example of that is the Rave Guardian app.”

The Rave Guardian app, as Wolfe suggested, turns cell phones into personal safety devices equipped with a panic button, anonymous crime tip texting and the ability for selected individuals to see a user’s location in the event of an emergency. 

Cases of discrimination must be addressed when taking campus safety into account, according to Wiggan.

“Expose and condemn racial disparities in administration of disciplinary measures as they pertain to drug-related charges against students and how such charges disproportionately impact financial aid,” Wiggan wrote in the Zoom chat during the debate. “Disciplinary measures for drug-related charges against students are administered with racial disparity- we pledge to challenge this. Activists on campus are working to cut ties with the Metropolitan Police Department.”

Although Georgetown is largely supervised by GUPD, its own police force commissioned by the city, GUPD still works closely with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to prevent and deter crime on campus and in the surrounding area. 

The university should emphasize protecting and prioritizing the needs of the victims of dangerous campus incidents, Leonard said.

“As we continue to navigate our administrative responsibility to address GUPD, we simply need to ensure that they’re held accountable and that voices are supported and that victims have a much more substantial relationship with GUPD, and that harassment, of course, does not continue to persist at our university,” Leonard said.

All candidates agreed that reparation efforts for the descendants of the GU 272 — the 314 enslaved people sold by the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus in 1838 to financially sustain Georgetown — should continue and that GUSA and students should continue to pressure the university to take action. 

Candidates also answered questions pertaining to COVID-19 policies, as the pandemic continues to impact life at Georgetown with the spring 2022 semester starting with virtual instruction and limited on-campus amenities and facilities. 

The university should prioritize the needs of immunocompromised populations on campus and provide hybrid learning options, according to Leonard.

“Our utmost priority is that the decisions the university makes are in line with making sure our immunocompromised populations on campus are protected, and I think that that has already been demonstrated by the university in their hybrid learning option,” Leonard said. “That’s something that we absolutely want to bring back as we continue to navigate the coronavirus pandemic.”

While the Wolfe-Ume campaign is also committed to protecting immunocompromised students, Wolfe contends that a hybrid learning option takes away from the traditional learning experience.

“At Georgetown, we’ve been online for a year now, and we’re all college students,” Wolfe said. “One of the main reasons we go to college is to meet new people and have traditional experiences associated with going to college.”

Voting opens Feb. 10 and closes Feb. 12.