At UPUA’s weekly meeting Wednesday night, Governmental Affairs Chair Isaac Will announced his resignation from the assembly.

“If I’m prevented from giving the position what it deserves, I’ve got to pass on the torch to somebody who can,” Will said. ”

Will started his tenure in UPUA on the organization’s Freshman Council during the fall 2015 semester. A few short months later, he applied and was confirmed to fill a vacant at-large representative position.

After being re-elected to serve as an at-large representative for UPUA’s eleventh assembly, Will was confirmed as the liaison to the Pennsylvania Association of State-Related Students — a statewide advocacy organization uniting Penn State, Pitt, Lincoln, and Temple. Will co-sponsored two bills and eight resolutions through the 2016-2017 school year, according to UPUA’s online legislation records.

Will was re-elected once again to serve UPUA’s twelfth assembly, and then elected internally to chair the governmental affairs committee. So far this year, he’s already co-sponsored at least four pieces of legislation in addition to his work on other initiatives.

But Isaac Will has been a lot more than his positions and the legislation he’s worked on. And for that, I thank him.

Thank you for your remarkable efforts to get students to care about — and even participate in — local government. While you insist on dispelling your own credit for voter registration and voter turnout, these efforts would not have reached such great heights without your contributions.

“Coincidence or not, Penn State received its appropriations the week after we delivered our 100+ letters to the PA house leadership, and the very day we set up a phone banking booth outside the HUB,” Will said in his resignation address to the assembly. I’m here to tell you I sincerely doubt it was a coincidence.

It says a lot about a person when he spends his resignation address highlighting the accomplishments of all those who have worked alongside him.

Thank you for allowing me to call you the “pioneer of emergency management” and for even lightheartedly (I think) embracing the title as your own. Congratulations on finally seeing the culmination of your efforts in doubling the staff size of Penn State’s emergency management office.

Thank you for serving as a solid and respectful voice of the student body in the State College Borough. And, if I may, thank you for showing our local elected representatives that students aren’t “scary and drunk all the time.”

I’ll even go as far as to thank you for calling us on what you’d probably consider our bullshit. While I stand by our decision to publish “Drunk, Sober, High: State College Mayoral Debate” I appreciate your fervor and enthusiasm for maintaining the relationships you’ve worked to develop during your time here. When I’m making waves, I’m doing my job. When you denounce them, you’re doing yours.

“That’s all you genuinely need to accomplish anything — a lot of passion and a lot of heart” Will said. “At the end of the day, if you stand up for what’s write and you speak up for what you believe in, never put yourself above anyone else, and do everything you do with passion, you’ll never steer yourself wrong.”

So thank you, Isaac. You’ve truly bettered student life at Penn State.