The newly seated Student Senate re-elected Bill Davidson as its speaker after more than an hour of speeches and debates when he ran against graduate economics major Brice Donnelly at Wednesday night’s senate meeting.

Davidson was this semester’s speaker, delivering a performance that many senate members criticized during debates. In last week’s State of the Senate address, Davidson criticized some members for sitting on senate to pad their resumes. In return, he received criticism for not pushing senate members to create legislation that affected the entire university.

“Passing bills that only have to do with senate? Is that consistency?” asked Amy Leonard, student vice president for business affairs, when senate members advocated reelecting Davidson to avoid switching speakers mid-year.

But in the end, it was what senate members called Davidson’s approachability and passion for senate that won the election.

“That passion eats me up inside when things go wrong,” Davidson said during a question-and-answer session following candidate speeches and endorsements.

Senate members also lauded Davidson for always being available.

When blamed for the senate’s lack of pertinent legislation or goals during the past semester, Davidson took the floor in his own defense, saying he could neither tell senate members what legislation to write or stop them from writing internal legislation.

“A lot of goals cannot be accomplished in one semester,” Davidson said after the meeting.

Davidson hopes to continue to “run a tight ship” when he presides over senate meetings, but promote the laid-back atmosphere Davidson said distinguishes him from past speakers. He also said he plans to assign goals to committee chairs and meet with them weekly or biweekly to keep up on their progress.

Donnelly, while hailed for his devotion to his senate and committee duties during his first semester as a member, was criticized by a number of senate members for being “unapproachable.”

In his speech endorsing Donnelly, Jeff Collier, last semester’s senate secretary ,spoke of his commitment to promoting diversity within senate. Collier also praised Donnelly’s ability to bridge the gap between people in senate who called themselves “arch enemies” or who, at the least, could rarely agree.

“He’s very capable; he’s neutral and open-minded,” Collier said.

Donnelly will graduate with his master’s in economics in August and therefore will not seek the seat again. He plans to stay on senate during the spring semester. During the fall, Donnelly served as Faculty Senate liaison and on the Tuition and Fee Review and Student Relations committees.

While Donnelly was disappointed with the loss, he felt the discussion generated by the race will help senate in the coming semester.

“It’s still a better senate with everything out in the open,” he said.