By Taylor Paraboschi

Nassau County police arrested five University students on March 26, following an attempted robbery in the New Complex dorms. According to a police report released the same day, four of the five students arrested had “planned to forcibly steal property” from the fifth student, Greg Sable who was an Resident Assistant (RA) in New Complex.

The incident began when one of the students, sophomore Adi Kauf-Stern,, entered Sable’s dorm intending on purchasing an undisclosed amount of cocaine. According to the police report, two other students , sophomore Timothy Gallo and sophomore Michael Smith, entered into Sable’s room with B.B. Guns, stealing an undisclosed amount of ecstasy, cocaine, prescription pills, jewelry and cash before fleeing the residence hall. They then got into a car driven by Christian Webster.

The Nassau County police eventually arrested all five students involved in the incident in and the stolen property was confiscated as well. Sable, who was an RA on the third floor of New Complex, was charged with three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fourth degree.

The drug heist and arrest came as a shock to many students, both in New Complex and on the rest of the campus. “I was a little shocked,” said freshman Norah Carney when asked about how she found out about the incident. “Only because I didn’t know all of the information at first, just that there was a gunman.”

Student Government Association (SGA) Vice President Jared Barry echoes the sentiments of Carney, adding that he found out about what happened in New Complex from a high-school friend from his hometown. “I didn’t know about anything beforehand,” said Barry. “I was surprised to hear about something like that on campus,”

Barry went on to add that he felt as though something like the drug arrest was inevitable on campus. “It’s something that happens on most college campuses. We’ve all heard the stories. It took everyone by surprise because something this big hasn’t happened on campus in awhile,” he said, adding that the fact that this comes as a shock to so many people is because the campus has a good security system.

With all of the attention surrounding the recent arrests some people have begun to question the RA selection process and whether or not it needs to be improved. When asked what he thinks could be improved to ensure that something like his doesn’t happen again, freshman Bryan Menegus said that it isn’t the security system, but rather the RA selection system that needs to be improved.

“[The University] obviously stakes a lot in choosing who will become role models for other students and to think that they allowed a bad seed like Greg means that they aren’t trying hard enough to figure out who truly cares and who just wants a cost-free dorm,” said Menegus.”

“This was an isolated incident,” responded Associate Dean of Students Lynda O’Malley. “It is not a reflection on the other 174 RA’s who are doing exactly what they should be doing.

To become an RA one has to go an extensive application process including an application, two letters of reference, good disciplinary standing with the University (never being written up), good academic standing, along with completing two rounds of interviews with both RA’s and RD’s.

“We select people who can be role models,” said O’Malley. “As in any organization you can get people who do not conduct themselves they way they should.” O’Malley went on to add that as far as improving the RA process the University is going to review the wording of their work contracts between themselves and the RA’s to see if the wording of the contracts could be modified in anyway.

“We feel very confident with our current and future staff,” said O’Malley.

“The RA is a protector of the residents,” said freshman Suja Nair, who lives in New Complex, when she was asked about what she thought about the incident. “I understand that the RA job is very appealing because you get to live here for free, but the job has other important qualifications that should be more looked into.”