Multiple selection and simultaneous actions for list UIs

Sometimes I want to perform an action on many elements, such as deleting a dozen roles or privileges no longer in use. Having to click each single item and wait for the UI to reload the entire screen, then move to a button at the top of the screen, then have the UI reload the whole screen again, then move back down to the next item in the list and repeat, is very user-unfriendly. It would be nice to have a method to select multiple elements from the lists and then perform an action on all of them at once.