Jeff Nath, former speaker of the Forum, is the new Minnesota Student Association vice president.

MSA President Eric Dyer nominated Nath and the Forum approved him unanimously Tuesday night at the first meeting of the school year.

“I picked Nath because he’s extremely involved and very knowledgeable,” Dyer said.

Nath will fill the role former Vice President Gina Nelson quit Aug. 26.

The Forum will choose a new speaker during its Tuesday meeting. MSA’s constitution requires the speaker to be a Forum member.

Dyer said the vice president position is one of the most open positions in MSA, allowing pursuit of projects personally important to the vice president.

Nath said he hopes to finish projects that have stalled in past years.

“There’s stuff we’ve been working on for years, and students have yet to see anything tangible,” Nath said. “My goal this year is to actually finish these projects.”

His list includes late-night busing, better University Dining Services meal plans, installing crosswalk timers at stoplights, making faculty evaluations more accessible to students and eliminating the Graduation Proficiency Test.

Nath, a history senior, has been active in MSA for almost his entire University career.

He was also last year’s Forum speaker and has been an at-large representative and facilities and housing chairman for MSA.

“As an at-large member, he had more legislation go through than anyone,” Dyer said. “So, (the vice president position is) getting him back to that active role.”

Late night busing

At Tuesday’s meeting, facilities and housing Chairman Tom Zearley discussed a late-night busing plan to increase student safety.

“The late-night bus is definitely going,” Zearley said.

The initiative is part of a pilot program funded last year by MSA in hopes of gaining University fiscal support. MSA contributed $6,500 last spring for the two-week pilot program, which the University hopes will run longer, Zearley said.

He has met with University officials and hopes to have the program running within the next month, but he is still developing the final plan.

The tentative route will include stops at Coffman Union, the superblock, The Melrose and Jefferson Commons apartments, Huron parking lots and Como and Dinkytown neighborhoods.

The bus is scheduled to run Monday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., with a bus running at least every 30 minutes.