By Zac Estrada, News Staff

Provost Stephen Director hailed Northeastern’s accomplishments during the last few years and said there would be continued changes to facilities and programs over the next five years, as well as a bump in the number of faculty members.

Director, joined by Vice Provost Susan Powers-Lee Monday at the Student Government Association (SGA) meeting Monday, spoke highly of the surge in freshmen applicants, which topped 43,000 this year and made Northeastern the most applied-to private university in the country. He said with the freshmen class projected to remain around 2,800 students, Northeastern would also be one of the most selective institutions in the country.

“It’s a very different place than it used to be,” Director said to student representatives. “It may even be a different place than when some of you started here.”

SGA supported the university administration’s decision to eliminate activities periods starting in the fall.

The decision to remove dedicated time for student groups to meet faced heated discussion, but was ultimately approved in a bid to alleviate the university’s dire lack of classroom space and available class time.

“It’s going to have a very positive impact overall,” he said, acknowledging there will be some problems early on that will need to be refined.

What has not been determined yet is whether the change will improve class selections for students.

“With the elimination of activities period, the goal was to open up more class space,” SGA Director of Communications Taylor Cotter said. “But are there additional sections courses being added for fall?”

Director said it would be a wait-and-see situation until students have finished signing up for classes.

“But if we don’t see a lot more classes, then we haven’t achieved what we were trying to do,” he said.

Also to be determined is the possibility of getting classroom space available during the day for student clubs.

Director said he wants more flexibility in curriculum between the colleges, applauding the four-year co-op track started for freshmen last year. More online classes will eventually integrate into that program so students can be on co-op and still take classes, he said.

“Many of our programs, in my opinion, have too many classes,” Director said. He added that he encourages colleges to continue evaluating required courses.

SGA Vice President of Academic Affairs Michael Sabo asked if that flexibility would be extended to NU Core, classes required by colleges to complete majors.

“The core has a lot of flexibility built into it,” said Powers-Lee, who represents undergraduate and cooperative education. “It’s not something everyone has to fit into.”

In the long-term, Director said, the university’s two-year-old long-range plan for programs and facility upgrades would guide Northeastern into the next decade.

“It’s the action steps, but not necessarily the path to get us there because there’s room for departments and colleges to develop content,” Director said.

In addition to refining the university’s curriculum, Director said the university will add about 150 faculty over the next five years.

“That means more opportunities for classes, and more research opportunities,” Director said.

He added that over the same period, Northeastern plans to replace an additional 150 faculty members, and that the university could be hiring nearly 300 people. There are about 700 faculty members currently at Northeastern.

Part of the long-range plan also includes utilizing the Forsyth Institute Building next to the Museum of Fine Arts. Northeastern has recently started a 10-year lease from the museum to use the roughly 100,000 square feet of space, including research facilities that will house new undergraduate projects and free existing research rooms for much-needed renovations.

Correction: An earlier edition of this article identified Michael Sabo as Vice President of Student Affairs. He is, in fact, Vice President of Academic Affairs.

An earlier edition of this article stated that Provost Director supported SGA’s decision to eliminate activities periods starting in the fall. However, SGA supported the university administration’s decision to eliminate activities periods starting in the fall.