The University’s first move came when the Faculty Senate passed a resolution recommending the establishment of an ombuds program in March 2017. Then, former Provost Jonathan Holloway announced plans to create an Ombuds Office at Northwestern and hire a professionally trained ombudsperson by the 2020-21 academic year after years-long calls for conflict resolution reform.
But when the pandemic hit, Provost Kathleen Hagerty said the University had to delay their plans.
The first challenge was finances, as the University faced a budget shortfall in spring 2020 and imposed a hiring freeze. The second was that the ombudsperson who would focus on student group outreach and learn on the ground about campus life would have arrived on an empty campus.