This week, The News reported the Student Government Association (SGA) proposed creation of a College Expectation List that requires all eight colleges within Northeastern to follow a specific set of guidelines. The list is not binding, but it is a group of suggestions meant to spark dialogue between the group and administrators. Regardless, it remains to be seen whether SGA can institute these far-reaching goals.

These suggestions include making sure each college hold at least one town hall meeting per semester, establish college advisory councils, adopt Teacher Rating and Course Evaluation (TRACE) surveys as the primary form of teacher and course assessments, and ensure professors are utilizing the most cost effective options when selecting course materials.

All of these proposals would benefit the Northeastern Community. Town hall meetings would give students an opportunity to voice suggestions for each college, and be kept in the loop about what is going on. TRACE surveys are always a good source of information when making the important decision of which classes to take, and at a school that costs more than $50,000 a year to attend, cutting costs is great whenever possible.

That being said, it will be difficult for SGA to enforce these and other suggestions.

According to their proposal, “It is the expectation of the undergraduate student body that the Provost or appropriate Vice Provost works with the College Deans to ensure that the following should occur.”

Whether or not the vice president and assistant vice president of student affairs sign the document, SGA has no real pull in ensuring the list of suggestions is carried out. Certainly, the officials who agree to the suggestions will try their best to meet the undergraduate population’s expectations. But if they were so easy to implement, wouldn’t it have been done already? It’s not rocket science to realize students want cheap course materials.

The fact that these things even need to be addressed speaks to the university’s inability to provide them.

Hopefully, SGA’s proposal won’t fall on deaf ears and the administration will really try to implement these measures in each Northeastern college. The benefits would be tenfold for students, who will appreciate being considered. However, at a place as big as Northeastern, it is very possible that the expectations list will be, at best, half-hearted. To prevent this from happening, students should stand behind SGA and demand these needs are met.