Tyler Williams, USF Student Government’s senate president emeritus, stepped down from his position on Monday. ORACLE PHOTO/VIOLET VASQUEZ PIMENTEL

USF Student Government’s Senate President Tyler Williams resigned on Monday — a decision he said he had been thinking about for “a good amount of time.” 

Williams told The Oracle that academic and personal constraints, as well as the “toxicity” within SG, ultimately led him to step down.

“Student Government can be, and as everybody here in this room knows, kind of a toxic social environment for people,” Williams said during an SG senate meeting on Tuesday. 

The resignation announcement was sent to senators via email around 6 p.m. on Monday, along with the agenda for the SG senate meeting scheduled for the following day.

Williams acknowledged the announcement may have “surprised” some people, but said the decision was not made lightly.

As senate president, Williams presided over senate meetings as a “neutral arbiter,” meaning he was required to be impartial on campus issues.

Williams said he will now be able to advocate more for students as a senator — a position in which he said he can express his opinions more freely.

Additionally, Williams said fall 2025 was the most challenging semester of his life — both academically and personally.

“I believe that, unfortunately, mental illness and the mental health crisis at USF is so much worse than people say it is,” Williams said. “And I felt like I was part of that.”

Williams’ resignation follows an internal conflict within SG over leadership roles and outreach to student organizations.

Related: USF SG leaders encourage students to apply for 2026 general elections 

Arjun Manohar was sworn in as the Student Government’s new senate president during a senate meeting on Tuesday. ORACLE PHOTO/ISABELLA OEFELEIN

SG senators elected a new senate president during a meeting on Tuesday night.

Arjun Manohar, the former chair of the SG relations committee, was the sole nominee for the position. He was approved unanimously and immediately assumed office.

Manohar said he wasn’t expecting to become senate president, as he is graduating this semester and is still unsure whether he will pursue a master’s degree at USF.

Although he will need some time to adjust to his new role, Manohar said he is excited about the opportunity.

“I knew that I had the capabilities to do it, and I knew that I had the experience to do it,” Manohar said. “So I think it just makes sense for me.”

Manohar said his goal as senate president will be to provide clear, communicative leadership — something he said has caused issues within SG.

The USF SG senate comprises the policy, ethics, programming, relations and LegEx committees, totalling over 25 senators, according to SG.

LegEx serves as the “highest committee” in the legislative branch, reviews the duties of other committees and makes executive decisions on behalf of the senate, according to SG.

During a Feb. 5 LegEx meeting, Manohar explained that the relations committee oversees outreach to student organizations to maintain relationships across semesters, contacting them via email to discuss how SG can support them.

But Manohar said Williams had recently been communicating with student organizations without the involvement of the relations committee. 

Related: USF student orgs hit with budget cuts as funding shortfall deepens 

Williams said he reached out to student organizations after recognizing the need to assess the effectiveness of the relations committee’s current outreach approach.

After meeting with five student organization leaders independently, Williams said he found “none of them” had heard from the relations committee.

“That shows me that a lot of the existing structures are not necessarily effective to the point where you know all student organizations are reached,” he said. 

Manohar said it was “frustrating” to hear that Williams identified inefficiencies within the relations committee — since Manohar himself contacted 50 student organizations and held nearly 20 meetings last semester.

USF has more than 600 student organizations, and SG allocates annual budgets to more than 250 of them, according to USF.

Manohar said that because Williams reached out to student organizations independently, the relations committee’s duties had to be put on hold while the team identified any duplications in outreach.

Williams apologized for “confounding” the relations committee’s work and clarified that his actions were meant to be complementary, not conflicting.

Still, Manohar said they were unable to reach a “mutual understanding” of how their roles intersected.

Related: USF SG sees fewer voters but zero grievances after ending online voting 

Williams said the senate president is authorized to contact student organizations under SG’s Legislative Rules of Procedure — a document that outlines officers’ duties.

However, the document lacks specific language on whether the senate president can or should reach out to student organizations.

“I think that anyone who’s willing to do the work should be encouraged to do the work, and I think they just have to communicate,” Williams said. “And I really feel like I did.”

LegEx members took a vote on the Feb. 5 meeting on whether they believed Williams was “overreaching in outreaching” to student organizations — which passed with four “yeses” and three abstentions.

Williams said this LegEx meeting was the “culmination point” of his decision to step down.

“I tried to support student organizations, and I was shut down,” Williams said. 

As the new senate president, Manohar said his next step will be to identify which student organizations Williams contacted during his tenure — and what was communicated to them.

“I’ll be working with the next relations chair to ultimately resolve this issue so we can get back to work,” Manohar said. 

Additional reporting by Isabella Oefelein.