CORRECTION APPENDED: This headline misspelled Mohammad Dar's name.

LSA junior Mohammad Dar sometimes seems a little bit older than his Michigan Student Assembly counterparts. He eschews the black North Face jacket for a long, beige trench coat. His brisk, clipped speech and neatly-combed hair sometimes make him seem more like a senior statesman than a campus politico.

Still, he's not all business. Dar, the Michigan Action Party's candidate for MSA vice president, is also president of Wolverine Soft, a University videogame club.

Dar, who is running against Defend Affirmative Action Party candidate Sarah Barnard, said he has always viewed MSA as a way to improve the community.

"There is nowhere else I can have more of an impact and make life better for students than on MSA," he said.

He said his track record is what won him the MAP vice presidential nomination.

When Dar first ran for the position of MSA representative as a freshman in 2004, he ran as an independent and lost.

Next semester, he ran with the Students 4 Michigan party and won a seat.

Dar then spent three semesters as the co-chair of then-defunct International Student Affairs Commission. Dar has since revitalized the commission. He also spent two semesters as vice chair and then chair of the Executive Relations Committee, where he successfully lobbied City Council for an ordinance that pushed back the date before which landlords could sign leases.

In winter 2006, Dar left his position as the chair of International Student Affairs Commission. The following fall, he stepped down as chair of the Executive Relations Committee.

According to Yost, Dar wanted to give others a chance to work on the assembly.

Now Dar spends 15 hours a week working behind the front desk in the MSA office. He still finds time to advise representatives.

In January, Dar was elected executive director of the Association for Big Ten Students, which facilitates communication between the student governments of Big Ten schools.

Former Michigan Progressive Party presidential candidate Rese Fox, who was first elected to MSA on the S4M, ticket gave a glowing assessment of Dar.

"He's a great guy with a lot of integrity," she said. "He cares a lot about the result and not a lot about getting his name in the paper."