Northeastern’s Student Government Association, or SGA, passed legislation over the summer setting a proportional cap on the number of senators that can be elected from each academic college and student organization, revamping the student senate selection process. 

The legislation, which is set to be enacted at the start of the 2026 spring semester, changes the election process to create a senate that more equally represents the student body, senators said. 

“I was hesitant at first, but after speaking to the authors of the legislation, I think it was the right decision,” said Alyssa Howe, a second-year philosophy and political science combined major and SGA senator.

The new legislation caps the number of senators per college and requires each senator to represent both a college and a community constituency. A community constituency can be a student organization, cultural and spiritual center or Greek Life organization. 

Dylan Lee, a fourth-year data science and economics combined major and SGA executive vice president, explained the new policy was enacted due to unequal representation of colleges and organizations in the senate.

“Valid constituencies were academic colleges, student organizations that were recognized by SGA and fraternities and sororities, and in the past, that sort of led to some overrepresentation of certain colleges and underrepresentation of other colleges,” Lee said. 

The change reflects SGA’s desire to keep student representatives engaged and connected to different communities across campus, Lee added. 

“In the past couple years, we saw a dwindling of interest from special interest constituencies in particular,” he added. “We do recognize it is important that our students are integrated into our communities and know what’s happening with other students, and that’s why we have the hard cap of senators from the academic colleges.”

Previously, students who wanted to run for SGA needed to collect 30 signatures from their declared constituency, which could be either a student’s academic college or an SGA-recognized organization. If an organization did not have 40 or more members, the number of signatures required was adjusted to 75% of the membership.

Now, students must be in good standing with the club they represent and provide an endorsement form signed by their club’s leaders in order to run. 

“[The endorsement form is] kind of a letter of recommendation,” said Kathryn Mittelhauser, SGA’s current vice president of external affairs and an author of the legislation.

According to Mittelhauser, the most underrepresented colleges in SGA are Bouvé College of Health Sciences, the College of Science and the College of Engineering. The College of Social Sciences and Humanities, or CSSH, on the other hand, is overrepresented. 

“I would say CSSH is over [represented] currently, and so there will be a change in the number of CSSH [senators] next year,” Mittelhauser said.

Senators from each college will be capped at a ratio of one senator per 500 students. This proportion aims to keep the senate around its current size of 36 students. 

“The [ratio] was chosen [to be] 500-to-one because we were aiming to keep the senate at approximately the same size as it currently is. So the cap really isn’t going to change the population of the senate,” Mittelhauser said. “We also have in that legislation the ability to adjust as needed, that ratio, because the legislation is reviewed consistently.” 

Students who are combined majors housed in different colleges can choose which college they represent. 

SGA also plans on conducting outreach to underrepresented colleges in the hope of attracting more applicants.

“We are specifically trying to get these colleges and student organizations or groups of students that aren’t as represented in the current senate to join this new, revamped version of senate,” Mittelhauser said. “And so a lot of effort this upcoming semester, and within the next few months, is going to be reaching out to these colleges, being like, we really want you to be representing your college and advertising [SGA] as an important leadership position.” 

Per the new legislation, if a particular college receives an overwhelming number of applicants, SGA will audit the applications and cut some applicants.

“If we have far too many applications for one college, such that it would be overwhelming for the voters to have that many on a ballot, then there is also an auditing process to narrow that down,” Mittelhauser said.

The new legislation also prohibits students from running for senate during their first semester on the Boston campus. 

“[First-year students] have just gotten to campus, the whole point of [the] senate is to have the knowledge and the connections to the student body and the issues on campus that you will be able to represent them,” Mittelhauser said.

Senators may hold their role for two semesters, meaning senators running for election in the spring 2026 semester will have to do so under the new legislation, while those nominated to the senate in fall 2025 will not be affected by the change. 

“Because I already became a senator, and I don’t have to reapply, I don’t technically also have to fit into those rules. So technically by next fall semester, everyone will be representing both an academic and cultural organization or club,” Howe said.

Correction: this article was updated Dec 7. at 7:30 p.m. to clarify representation requirements.