Rams need a high temperature between 80-86F. If you opt for rams, find fish suitable for these temps, such as cardinals. If not, plant it and go with a school of cardinals and rummy nose tetras.
Do the college staff physicly check the size of the tanks? Because if they dont you easily buy a wider tank, that still has the same height and depth of a 10G and just hide the depth from the naked eye with furniture, or a lamp, bed etc. This will let you have more gallonage thus a more stable tank in terms of chemistry composition.