Steven Latimer

So wrote American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is in this spirit that I announce that I have resigned from the VCU Student Body Senate.

I never intended to be in the Student Senate. But in early 2006, Tyler Bass - a friend of a friend who was running for Student Body President at the time - encouraged me to run for Student Senate. Tyler inspired me, and on a whim I ran and I won.

For the next two years and some change, I was in essence Tyler's protege. (After Tyler lost his race, he did some journalism work, and then graduated.) Tyler was no longer here, but his ideas lived on in the form of me - ideas that propelled me myself to run for Student Body President last Spring. Ideas that matter like budget transparency and openness - and a distaste for snobbish elitism.

The two acts I am proudest to have engineered while on Student Senate are the VCU Freedom Act and the "VCU, Bring a Conservative!" Resolution.

I wrote the VCU Freedom Act, which requested that the University place Veterans Day on the University's calendar. VCU - among all public universities in Virginia - had the largest enrollment of student veterans, yet VCU was the last public university in the state to place Veterans Day on their calendar. After a good bit of hemming and hawing, the VCU administration decided to reference the November 11 observance on its calendar; see VCU's Fall 2009 calendar.

When concerns arose over a lack of diversity in the guests VCU paid to bring, my "VCU, Bring a Conservative!" Resolution asked the University to host and sponsor a notable conservative speaker. I can't say this resolution accomplished the said goal, but it seemed to add diversity to the speakers list.

Many have asked why I have suddenly decided to resign my Senate seat. Truthfully, there are several reasons. Time is one consideration. Another is that I have come full circle. The Senate continues to address issues that it seems like have already been addressed long ago. I won't be a part of an organization that goes in circles. Electing new, different leadership to the SGA Executive Branch is the best chance to truly solve problems.

But that's a different topic for a different day.