Student Association leaders warned senators a student grievance policy may face a challenge at University Council at the SA Senate meeting Sunday.

SA Senate Speaker Dillon Domke addressed the grievance policy, which is meant to target students who feel mistreated by faculty and staff. Domke said the senators should be prepared for opposition to the policy at the next University Council meeting on April 2, where the council will vote on whether to move it forward.

“This is something that truly benefits the students that attend Northern,” Domke said. “This is something that has been in the works for 13 years now. It’s getting somewhere now.”

Mike Theodore, SA chief of staff, said the policy is meant to resolve conflicts between students and faculty and staff.

“The power of this policy comes from the students,” Theodore said. “The policy is meant for a last resort. We have prior policies that students can turn to, such as discrimination, but … this is a policy for when students have no where else to go.”

Theodore said it is a problem that students are not aware of the chain of command in which they should report their problems.

“How can we tell students if the supervisors don’t do anything about it, which is something we hear about every year,” Theodore said. “How do we help students go through that process when there rarely will be [a] solution?”

Two-year residency requirement

Ben Donovan, SA Senate deputy speaker, introduced a resolution which would urge a stop to the university’s consideration of requiring students to live in the residence halls for two years instead of one.

“This bill is a measure of proactive action on part of the student body to let the university know how we actually feel about it,” Donovan said. “What it will boil down to next week is pretty much a debate over how we feel as a group.”

Senator Miki Grace said she moved out of the residence halls because she could no longer afford to live there.

“A lot of people have to go home because they cannot afford to live in the residence halls for two years,” Grace said. “I don’t think that forcing students to stay in the residence halls is such a good idea, especially when we’re trying to focus on keeping students in school.”

Senator Brandon Phillips said the implementation of a two-year residency requirement is not a problem if students are able to waive the requirement.

“From where I sit, if the university were to include that into the new — hypothetical, of course — two-year residency requirement in the residence halls then I see no problem with it,” Phillips said.