By: Brandon Whitaker
Students from 14 universities across Virginia gathered in Richmond last week for the Virginia Government Simulation. The three day conference featured over one hundred student legislators, an executive team and a press corps with three student journalists.
Students attending the conference simulated a session of the Virginia General Assembly. Leading up to the conference the students drafted legislation that would be debated in committee meetings and later voted on in floor sessions at the Virginia Capitol.
The Radford delegation led by Dr. Chapman Rackaway, included students Kyle Murray, Mia Ortiz, Jakob Genest, Sullivan Manley, Therese Root, Claudia Booher, Michael Lester, Will Stimpson, Payton Seals, Naomi O’Toole and Tupper Gillie.
Sophomore Kyle Murray and freshman Sullivan Manley each received awards for leadership as the Democrat House majority leader and Democrat Senate majority leader respectively.
After two days of floor sessions at the Capitol, the governor of VGS signed three bills that were drafted by Radford students during the closing ceremony. SB2, the Virginia Government Transparency Act, authored by Manley, is a “bill to prohibit localities and state agencies from entering into nondisclosure agreements concerning major development projects.”
Jakob Genest drafted 11 pieces of legislation including three resolutions and eight senate bills. Although he was assigned to be a republican for the sim, he managed to work across the aisle and pass SB6, the Amber Alert Revision Act. The bill would amend parts of the code of Virginia relating to Amber Alerts to make it easier for law enforcement to issue alerts and have more options to locate missing persons. Genest saw all three of his resolutions passed, each of them commending those who made VGS possible. The resolutions included a comendment of the Virginia General Assembly, commending Dr. Rackaway and Dr. Amanda Wintersieck from VCU, as well a resolution commending the student leadership that worked hard to ensure everything ran smoothly. Naomi O’Toole passed HB23 the Accessible websites for the blind and people with disabilities act.
