By Colin Young, News Staff
This week, the Student Government Association (SGA) launched a new online program to promote student input and feedback on initiatives around campus. The program, called NUideas, allows students to make and comment on suggestions online for ways to improve student life.
Once registered with their Husky email account, students can suggest ideas, comment on and discuss other students’ ideas and vote for the suggestions they want to see implemented through SGA’s website. Students can also sync NUideas to their Facebook, Twitter and Google accounts.
“NUideas will be an [sic] new easy and effective tool that will allow all students to give important feedback to their student government on the issues and concerns they care about most,” Student Body President Michael Sabo said in a press release.
As of Wednesday evening, 30 users commented and voted on seven ideas, two of which have already been flagged as “in progress.” The ideas ranged in categories from academics to campus recreation. At press time, eight of the top 10 contributors were members of SGA.
Among the ideas posted as of yesterday were the expansion of the remote printing option, making ZipCars available on campus and allowing upperclass housing residents to sign in more than three guests.
As of Wednesday evening, the most popular idea was the creation and implementation of ‘virtual advising’ for students to interact with professors and advisors remotely.
Dani Wojdya, the newly-elected vice president for academic affairs, submitted the idea and wrote in her submission that the motivation behind it was “so that all students can interact with their academic advisors whether they are in downtown Boston or downtown Shanghai through such tools as Skype.”
In its press release, SGA said it has made strides over the past two years to improve the Northeastern experience for students.
In the fall, SGA started a Facebook page, “Having a Say in How Northeastern Tuition and Fees Are Spent,” so students could share their concerns and suggest on-campus changes.
“We thought it was a cool way to reach out and start some discussion,” then-President Ryan Fox said in the Nov. 4 issue of The News. “We obviously do a lot of brainstorming and a lot of research internally, but it’s interesting to see some of the ideas that pop up.”
While the Facebook group gained some initial traction, there hasn’t been a wall post since March 16.
When SGA introduced the “Having a Say…” Facebook page, Northeastern Director of Communications Renata Nyul said the university had a system in place to review and respond to student input and feedback gathered by SGA.
“There is an established process for the senior administration to receive input from the SGA on the budget priorities,” Nyul said in an email to The News. “It is great to see that the SGA is finding innovative ways to solicit input from a broad range of students.”
The SGA website also solicits student feedback through its “I love Northeastern but…” initiative.
“We all love Northeastern, however issues crop up that need resolution,” the website reads. “There is no job too big or too small for your Student Government.”
To access the new NUideas community, visit www.sga.neu.edu/ideas.
