STRAIGHT alters focus after founder Loccarini's departure

Darin Loccarini, president and founder of Students Reinforcing Adherence in General Heterosexual Traditions, resigned Tuesday.

Loccarini said his decision was not as much a reaction to problems within STRAIGHT as it was a decision to pursue other interests in his life.

"The belief and value hasn't changed, but the cost-to-benefit ratio of defending that view is now being influenced by other factors," Loccarini said.

STRAIGHT's acting president Alex Cadman said Loccarini was displeased with the current state of STRAIGHT. Citing recent apathy and low membership in the group, Cadman said a meeting Monday night may have been the catalyst for Loccarini's resignation.

"I think, to put it in a nutshell, things with STRAIGHT have not been going well lately," Cadman said, "and that meeting was the straw that broke the camel's back."

However, Loccarini said a large class load and personal pursuits were two time-consuming factors that lead to his resignation, which he has been considering for a while.

"I laid the groundwork and I think I need to go my own way," he said.

Loccarini said he was satisfied with STRAIGHT's achievements and added that the formation of the group was an accomplishment in itself.

"We made a lot of people think, and I think whether they thought for us or against us, some lessons were taught," he said.

STRAIGHT, a group devoted to promoting heterosexual values, was officially chartered March 7, 1997, and was surrounded by controversy for its beginning months. It was denied its original request for a charter in February 1997 by the Undergraduate Student Government Supreme Court, but was accepted as an official University organization on appeal the next month.

Cadman said he credits Loccarini for accomplishing all the goals that he set out to complete when the group began.

"(Loccarini) commands a lot of my respect because he stood for a principle and, despite all the controversy, he saw it through until now," Cadman said.

As acting president, Cadman said he hopes to change the focus of STRAIGHT from its recent political perspective to a more spiritually oriented, religious stance. He is open to a diverse membership pool, he said, but the club's aims will lie in the tenets of Christianity.

"One of my visions for STRAIGHT is for us to have a group of about 10 dedicated Christians who would meet homosexuals where they're at and, in a caring way, try to lead them out of a destructive lifestyle and into a state of healing," Cadman said.