A task force to create university-wide student grievance procedures will be selecting students and other personnel starting this week for its 14-member committee.

The idea of having a standard policy arose from concerns by faculty and Ombudsman Tim Griffin, said Joseph Stephen, vice president of the Faculty Senate.

Currently, each individual academic department has its own set of guidelines for dealing with student grievances.

“This is not being formed to address any active grievances,” Stephen said.

The task force, created by the University Council, will review grievance policies used at comparable universities and the faculty and staff grievance policies already in use at NIU.

“These kinds of procedures are taken very seriously,” Stephen said. “It may take time to give them full consideration.”

The first meeting of the task force has not yet been set but is planned to happen within four weeks after all of the members have been contacted.

The task force’s first meeting will not be open to the public because of the confidential nature of the first meeting where edited versions of old grievance cases will be reviewed for background information, Stephen said.

A specific date has not been set for the task force to complete research and present its proposal to the council, Stephen said. The goal of the group is to have a report ready by the end of the academic year.

The University Council was in charge of determining the makeup of the task force.

The concerns were brought to the Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee, a sub-committee of the senate. From there, the sub-committee referred the idea to the senate whole, which then sent it to the council. Upon review, the council decided to have the senate form a committee to create the procedures.

The senate is in charge of setting up sub-committees and bringing ideas and proposals from those committees, as a whole, to the council. The council holds final approval over all items brought to them from the senate.