From filming the oath of office to taking it, a Memorial Union audio and video technician was confirmed as a senator.

The Senate confirmed Ethan Matthews, a freshman in performing arts, as an off-campus senator. Prior to the Senate meeting, Matthews was unanimously nominated by United Residents Off-Campus (UROC), the constituency council that represents off-campus students.

Though confirmed Wednesday, Matthews is a familiar face to the members of the Senate. He spent the last academic year and part of this year as an audio and video technician for Senate meetings.

“I think Ethan is more than qualified,” said Ella Slade, a junior in journalism and mass communication and the senator that authored the bill nominating Matthews. “He has seen more Senate meetings than me.”

Matthews was doing his job adjusting microphone levels and moving the camera to whichever senator was speaking for their cause when he found he wanted to contribute.

“After watching [Senate meetings], I was like ‘man I really want to discuss with you guys cause it just looks like so much fun,’” Matthews said.

Matthews put his passion to practice, and mental health ranks on top of the priority list for the newly sat senator.

“It’s something that is big in my life, and it’s something that I really would like to help with other students, faculty, anybody that I can help,” Matthews said.

Jacob Frencher, sophomore in computer science and Senator representing off-campus students, was confirmed as a Senate member of the diversity, equity and inclusion committee.

During his confirmation, Frencher talked about his presentation at the ISCORE where he spoke about how to go about solving racism.

“In order to solve racism we need to actually quantify it,” Frencher said. “[At the conference] we talked about an equation to actually get an amount of racism, then year by year we can focus on lowering that value and prove that actual change is being brought about by policies or other things.”

Frencher became interested in diversity, equity and inclusion work when he got to campus and didn’t see a lot of students that looked like him. He wants students to feel accepted and have a group of friends that look like them.

The Gaming and Esports club requested $265.17 to fund registration and transportation for an upcoming competition in Skokie, Illinois. The bill passed unanimously.

The five player team will compete at the Battle for the Midwest on Oct. 22.

Joe Zuber, senior in computer engineering and manager of the club, says the group has a good outlook for the competition. The ISU club placed third last year, behind two professional teams. The competition is not allowing professional teams this year.

At the end of the meeting, Senators added a joint resolution titled “Supporting Our Prestigious Helpful and Indefatigable Advisor (S.O.P.H.I.A)” to the agenda to congratulate the organization’s advisor, Sophia Sarver, on her two year anniversary of working for Student Government.

Members of Student Government used their speaking privileges to share fond memories and praise for Sarver.