At the general assembly meeting on Monday, Student Senate elected its new director of administration after senate removed its former director during an impeachment trial on Nov. 11.
Student Senate’s chief of staff, Emma Hoyhtya, described the impeachment as difficult, but she said it is also creating positive change.
“I have full faith and trust in our senate that we will be able to adapt to this change and walk into something better than it was,” Hoyhtya, a sophomore management and leadership major, said.
After the impeachment and removal, an online application for qualified candidates was open for one week.
Freshman senator Amine Filali, a history major, was the only one of three applicants that fulfilled the requirements for the position.
The requirements were: prior senate experience or achieved voting member status through Student Senate department meeting attendance, a minimum 2.5 cumulative GPA, good standing with the university, receiving 150 signatures of current Bradley students on a petition, submit an online application before the deadline and be available to attend general assembly meetings through the end of the 2019-2020 academic year.
Filali spoke to Student Senate on Monday to argue he was deserving of the position. Senate went into executive session and it voted Filali in the new position with at least a two-thirds majority.
“Amine Filali is extremely prepared and credible for this job,” Hoyhtya said.
He said he wanted to apply to the position after seeing change in Student Senate throughout the semester.
“I saw that there wasn’t a clear cabinet or a clear student body officer and I wanted that to change,” Filali said. “I wanted somebody that I knew that could facilitate change and kind of completely rebrand the Student Senate, and I thought I could do the best job of doing that.”
He said his experience in leadership positions has shaped him to handle the position.
After accepting the director of administration position, he stepped down from president of Geisert’s Hall Council due to the time commitment. He is also the vice president of communications for Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity.
Filali said one of his goals is to make sure the student body is aware of what the organization is doing and its benefits.
“I think the more people that really knew and understood what senate did would give us more room to make improvements for the student body,” Filali said. “It’s really important to get that feedback from your constituents, so you can adapt and grow.”
He said he is currently working with student body officers to make this change, and is not expecting results during his time at Bradley but wants to see long-term effects.
“It’s making sure that senate is growing for the future, for the future Bradley students,” Filali said. “It’s kind of selfish to want everything to happen right away.”
