The Student Association will examine the possibility of obtaining health care and retirement benefits through the university for two attorneys paid by student fees.

Students’ Legal Assistance attorneys Don Henderson, Jr., and Lynn Richards give free legal advice to any fee-paying NIU student. Henderson has worked at the service for ten years and Richards has worked there for five years. The assistance office has provided legal advice for NIU students for 17 years.

In the past, the SA has been opposed to letting employees who are paid completely by student fees receive benefits through the university, SA President Huda Scheidelman said.

The SA Students’ Legal Advisory Committee will investigate the situation and push for the benefits, “if we can come up with a proposal included with their contract to prevent some problems which might occur if they are contracted by the university,” Scheidelman said.

“These attorneys have been extremely dedicated to work with students,” Scheidelman said. The proposal would make it clear that the attorneys would represent the students’ interests in case of a conflict between the university and the students.

In other SA business, the senate will have its last words on the Board of Regents policy changes that were approved at Thursday’s Regents’ meeting held at NIU.

The senate has “no formal opposition” to the changes, but not all members necessarily support them, SA Vice President Steve Coloia said. “At least these are more workable,” he said.

The changes to the original alterations were “significant,” Scheidelman said. She added that campus outcry in response to the original changes was instrumental in finding an adequate compromise.

“I think that everything has been said in the past two or three months, and that hasn’t left much to say on the (senate) floor,” she said.

The SA senate will meet at 6 p.m. in the Holmes Student Center’s Heritage Room.