By Zac Estrada, News Staff

The Student Government Association (SGA) passed a resolution Dec. 13 supporting the university administration’s proposal to eliminate activities periods starting Fall 2011, a move intended to create 226 new sections for classes.

In an online vote, senators voted 36-12-24 in favor of backing a bid by the Registrar and Provost’s offices.

“It is the sense of the Senate that the undergraduate student body supports the university proposal to alter the university schedule by eliminating all activities periods,” read the version of the bill approved by the vote.

The vote, held the final week of the fall semester, came after impassioned debate a week earlier in which senators and other students, some representing student groups, voiced concerns that cutting a dedicated time for groups to meet would dent student involvement at the university and would only be a band-aid solution to overcrowding and limited course selections, particularly among upper-division classes.

“Is it the long-term solution? Probably not,” Mallory Brown, SGA Vice President for Student Involvement said Dec. 6. “But it’s something that can fix our problems for the next few years for sure.”

But others see this as a longer-lasting fix because of Northeastern’s shortage of classroom space, something not expected to be remedied until more buildings are constructed.

“It would take 19 new classrooms to get the amount of space,” SGA President Ryan Fox said last week. Fox believes the elimination of activities periods would be a “fairly long-term” solution.

SGA’s resolution stipulates that the university’s administration should review space utilization for academic and non-academic groups, as well as giving the right for the student group to periodically ask for a review of classroom usage.

Additionally, provisions were made in the final version of the bill to make accommodations for current groups and events that currently happen during the day that would otherwise be impacted by the elimination of an activities period.

The faculty senate was scheduled to vote to eliminate activities periods yesterday at their regularly scheduled meeting. Action on the issue has been postponed to the next meeting because of yesterday’s snow emergency.