NIU’s discrimination hotline has established procedures to handle calls involving discrimination.

First, operators are told to ask the caller to give his/her name and telephone number. Operators also ask for the details of the problem or incident and the date, time and location of incident.

If a caller just wants to talk instead of, or in addition to reporting an incident, operators are told to obtain as much information for an incident report as possible.

Then they are supposed to either tell the caller to contact the Ombudsman’s Office between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., or tell the caller the Ombudsman’s Office will contact him/her the following day.

If an incident is in progress on campus or on Greek Row and they determine it to be potentially dangerous and in need of immediate attention, the operators are to collect all information requested on the incident report form, and call Larry Bolles.

If unable to reach Bolles, an operator is to call Assistant Judicial Officer Marti Ruel. If unable to reach Ms. Ruel, operators are to call NIU Vice President Jon Dalton, and the NIU University Police.

If the caller is unwilling to give a name and telephone number, operators are to call the UPs and report the incident. They are instructed not to call Bolles, Ruel or Dalton.

If an incident is in progress off-campus and it is determined to be potentially dangerous and in need of immediate attention, operators are to collect all information requested on the incident report form, and call DeKalb police. They are instructed not to call Bolles, Ruel or Dalton.

If an incident is not in progress and does not require immediate attention operators are to collect all information requested on the incident report form. They are then to tell callers the Ombudsman’s Office will call them back the following day.

The Judicial Office courier will pick up the incident reports from the Health Service each morning and deliver them to the Ombudsman’s Office where they will be maintained.

The Ombudsman will determine who should receive a copy of appropriate reports for action.

Reports requiring action will be sent to the appropriate Vice President who will forward the reports to the appropriate office for action.

The Ombudsman will conduct a follow-up investigation with the Vice Presidents as appropriate.