by Lauren DiTullio, News Staff
The Student Government Association (SGA) announced yesterday that the Offices of the Registrar and Provost have proposed a plan that will create 226 new sections for classes. The plan involves eliminating of activities period on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
SGA’s website cites the benefits of the change, like alleviating overcrowding on campus during school days. The site attributes this to increased retention rates, however, university figures show that the percentage of students who graduate from Northeastern within six years rose only from 69.5 percent in 2002 to 70 percent in 2008. More recent figures were not available.
According to a presentation created by university administrators for SGA executive board members, classrooms on campus range from being 99 percent full at the highest to 60 percent full at the lowest. These numbers are up from last year’s 90 percent high and 38 percent low. On average, the university’s classrooms are 89 percent occupied at any given time on a school day.
SGA Director of Communications Taylor Cotter said the university considers any number over 80 percent to be too high.
“It’s something that I actually think the students are going to love in the end,” said Mallory Brown, SGA vice president for student involvement.
Yesterday afternoon, Brown drafted an e-mail to student groups, which went out through InvolveNU and delivered the news about the proposed changes.
“It seems like it might be a little bit of a difficult change right now for groups that meet during the day, but in the end I think we’re going to get a lot of improvements to the rooms that we already have,” Brown said. “We’re hoping to use this as leverage to get the university to make improvements to its meeting spaces.”
Brown said SGA will be working closely with the administration, specifically Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs Ed Klotzbier. She said they will make an effort to make sure the technology and equipment available in rooms where student groups meet, such as those in Curry Student Center, is ideal for those groups.
“We’re going to be looking to evaluate all the classrooms and meeting spaces for our evening groups,” she said. “We’re going to do the best we can to create more availability for the rooms at night … and make it easier for students to book those rooms, which is something we’ve had problems with in the past.”
Brown acknowledged that resources are already strained in the evening, but said she thinks the shift will cause overall beneficial changes, such as making more events accessible to students on co-op.
However, Sam Landsberg, president of the Northeastern University Finance and Investment Club, said he is apprehensive about the change. The club meets during activities period every Wednesday.
“I didn’t even know about this until I happened to be talking to our advisor about something else,” Landsberg said. “I am not … necessarily completely against this, it just does affect our club directly. I would be interested in knowing how long they have been talking about this, and whether or not they ever polled students, or plan to.”
Student Body President Ryan Fox is quoted on the SGA website saying the schedule has been “a point of discussion for quite some time now.” Vice President for Academic Affairs Michael Sabo and Brown will present a “sense of the senate” to the rest of the SGA at this Monday’s senate, which is a presentation stating their take on the proposed change meant to foster discussion among other senators. According to the SGA website, Sabo is also in favor of the proposed changes.
Landsberg said he has counted on the time allotted for activities period in the past.
“I think [activities period] makes it easier to plan general group meetings … it’s something that I think of when I plan my schedule, for group projects or whatever else, knowing that I’ll have that time available on Wednesday and Thursday,” he said.
The administration’s presentation said it reviewed several other alternatives, such as evening classes. However, it was deemed impossible because the classrooms are already in use by the College of Professional Studies. Early morning classes were ruled out because of the difficulty of commuting to campus for a class earlier than 8 a.m. Saturday classes would only be able to meet once a week, yielding fewer new class periods than the proposed 226.
Vice Provost Susan Powers-Lee was not in the office when The News attempted to reach her yesterday. Registrar Linda Allen did not return calls for comment.
Kirsten Anderson, junior English major and vice president for events of the Student Alumni Association, said she is opposed to the elimination of activities period.
“I’m surprised that they are taking it away,” she said. “It’s one of the things I really liked about Northeastern.”
Although the Student Alumni Association does not meet during activities period, Anderson said they utilized the time for administrative tasks and promotional events. She also said she felt students at large use the time productively.
“I’m against it,” she said.
