The makeup of the Minnesota Student Association has changed quite a bit recently.

But new Vice President Jeff Nath thinks these changes won’t hurt the MSA’s core goal of being a voice for the student body.

“MSA still has the same over-arching goals as it head before all of this happened,” Nath said. “We want to do what we can for the students to make their lives better.”

Nath’s references to the “changes” in MSA stem from the recent resignation of Vice President Gina Nelson.

“Gina had great internship this passed summer (that focused on her career goals), and she got an offer to work through the school year,” Nath said. “She felt it was a career opportunity and she made a very smart decision knowing that she wouldn’t have enough time to do both MSA and her internship. She had enough respect for the students of this campus to know when she wouldn’t have time to help them.”

Since Nelson’s resignation, Nath left his position of Speaker of the Forum to assume the role of Vice President, after forum members ratified his appointment by president Eric Dyer.

Forum member Marty Andrade ran for and was elected by forum to open Speaker of the Forum position.

This initially posed criticism of MSA, because Andrade’s MSA presidential campaign slogan last spring was entitled, “Destroy MSA.”

But Nath was quick to point out that Andrade’s campaign might not have been as literal as much as it was figurative.

I think Marty was making a point more than anything when he ran on that platform,” Nath said. “And that was a valid point, because there are a number of students on this campus who don’t know what the hell (MSA is).

“All they know is that MSA takes money form them through the fees process and does something with. But in the last couple years, they haven’t seen any real direct benefit from it.”

“The fact that Marty made the point he did about MSA extends that feeling that a lot of students have.”

Nath doesn’t believe that Andrade wants to destroy MSA.

“I think that Marty knows, as well as everyone in this organization, that MSA has a lot of potential to do a lot of good for students. Realizing that potential is what we need to focus on.

“Marty, in his new position, has brought a new perspective,” Nath said. “He is much more focused on the job, as opposed to doing superfluous things around the campus.”

As far as maintaining initial campaign promises goes with President Dyer, Nath says Dyers number focus continues to be on the potential on-campus stadium.

Nath said he would like to work with the stadium issue as well, but he does not want the students to have to fork over any money for it.

“I’d love a stadium on-campus stadium, but I don’t want a long-term student contribution.”

Other issues MSA is focused on for this year, according to Nath, are parking issues on campus, the possibility of University accessible teacher/course evaluations and, the condition of off-campus student housing.

“It’s a serious concern of mine, of some of the conditions of the houses around here,” Nath said in lieu of the recent house fire that killed three University students. “But with the (possibility of city-mandated) inspections, there is just no place to send students who are removed from housing.”

“It’s a problem that’s going to take more than just one city-councilman and MSA pushing on it. It’s going to take a city-wide effort to fix that problem. And we have an opportunity, right now, to do something about it.”