By Zack Sampson, News Staff

Student Government Association (SGA) senators will vote Monday to endorse a new Northeastern pledge in an effort to provide support for the 2010 P.L.E.D.G.E., the effectiveness of which has underwhelmed university leaders.

The “I AM Northeastern Pledge,” which was preliminarily advertised with a video and handouts during Welcome Week, will serve as a new guiding statement for all students in respect to off-campus relations. It will supplement the existing P.L.E.D.G.E., which the school’s Office of Student Affairs implemented in Fall 2010 in response to complaints from community members about student disregard for the Mission Hill and Fenway neighborhoods.

Majority support for a Sense of the Senate regarding the new pledge would allow faculty in the Office of Student Affairs to continue a quick spread of the statement through the community, SGA Executive Vice President Will Pett said.

Jonas Edwards-Jenks, SGA’s vice president for student affairs, said the “I Am Northeastern” initiative is required because P.L.E.D.G.E. “didn’t become a part of the community,” and thus did not encourage Northeastern students living off-campus to be respectful of their neighbors.

“The enforcement measures were more in a response to the neighborhoods that didn’t think we were taking off-campus incidences seriously, and so [administration] really tried to make a new process to show that we care,” Edwards-Jenks said.  “They didn’t see any real decrease in off-campus incidences and students just thought it was just administration trying to go after them wherever they were.”

Between late last spring and this summer, Edwards-Jenks said representatives from the Office of Student Affairs, SGA, the Interfraternity Council, the Resident Student Association (RSA) and other campus groups collaborated to write a new, more student-driven statement.

Ashley Caron, who served on the committee to create the P.L.E.D.G.E. and was SGA’s vice president of student affairs last year, said she hopes the “I Am Northeastern Pledge” will succeed with increased advertising and more positive language.

Though the initial effort was promoted with handouts, fliers and a video, Caron said P.L.E.D.G.E. advertising did not reach all students. She said the policy also contained “really strong language,” that made it too stern for students to respect.

“[The pledge] is supposed to be something more proactive that really boosts Husky pride, in addition to making sure that we really do behave and model the way Northeastern wants us to look as students,” Caron said.