Associated Student Government Senate confirmed Weinberg junior Lars Benson as chief of staff Wednesday.

Benson was confirmed by a unanimous vote. He served as campaign manager for ASG President Nehaarika Mulukutla and executive vice president Rosalie Gambrah during the campaign.

He said he had a multitude of ideas and was “honored” to be chosen by the selection committee.

“ASG has been really important to me during my time at Northwestern, and my priority in submitting my name for this position is ensuring that ASG remains a strong institution, a respected institution and an institution that can make a difference for students on campus,” he said before the confirmation vote.

Benson was previously a residential senator. He has authored multiple resolutions and was one of the more vocal presences in Senate during his term. Benson authored a resolution responding to Donald Trump’s election as president in November and co-authored a resolution promoting accountability for sexual assault in February.

Before he left office, former chief of staff Isaac Rappoport spoke to senators about his experience during his four years in ASG.

“ASG really has an important place on this campus, and I think that (senators) are a part of what makes it important,” Rappoport said. “ASG is unique as a student group in its ability to really push on administrators and do some institutional advocacy that other student groups don’t necessarily have the structure to do.”

In his application for chief of staff, Benson said he wanted to improve communication between ASG committees and help recruit new members to join ASG. The chief of staff helps support the executive board, especially the president and executive vice president.

Speaker of the Senate Daniella Lumpkin, who was a member of the committee that interviewed Benson, told The Daily she was impressed by the ideas he had for the position.

“I have full confidence that he’ll be able to do this,” Lumpkin said. “He’s very good at working with Nehaarika and Rose, and I think that’s kind of paramount to everything, because most of your job as chief of staff is just managing them and the rest of the exec board.”

Senate also elected Weinberg sophomore Alex Oltarsh and Weinberg freshman Adam Davies to the Wild Ideas committee. Additionally, Rappoport, Mulukutla and Gambrah presented the ASG budget for next year. The budget can be approved by Senate next week.

Later during Senate, Rappoport and vice president for A-status finances Daniel Wu argued over a potential code change that would have allowed the chief of staff to sit in on A- and B-status finance committee meetings. After debate, the code change failed to pass.

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