Rights and Responsibilities: Residential Services

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Rights and Responsibilities

Rights and Responsibilities

Residence Hall Policies and Procedures

These policies and procedures are derived from the following sources in their entirety, and further broken down for your convenience. You are responsible for the information contained in the original documents, including any subsequent updates.

Campus Residence Rules & Regulations (from Residential Services)
Northwestern University Student Handbook (PDF) (from the Division of Student Affairs)
Sexual Misconduct Response and Prevention (from the Office of Equity)
Office of Community Standards

Underlying Northwestern's university housing policies and procedures are three basic assumptions:

Certain understandings and rules are necessary to guarantee each student the opportunity to take full advantage of the academic and co-curricular programs of Northwestern.
Most residents are mature rational adults, and will use common sense and consideration in their dealings with others.
Rules are necessary to ensure the physical and psychological security and safety of all residents.

As a result, our university housing building have very few rules and regulations and rely heavily on your judgment and your willingness to cooperate with the hall staff and fellow residents. However, the rules we do have are important, necessary, and will be enforced. It is essential that you understand and abide by the regulations which follow. Failure to do so can jeopardize your housing privilege.

As a resident in university housing, you hold the following rights:

The right to read, study, and live free from undue interference, unreasonable noise, and other distractions which inhibit the exercise of this right.
The right to expect that others will respect one's personal belongings.
The right to a reasonably clean environment in which to live, including the right to designate one's room a smoke-free environment.
The right to free access in one's room and to the facilities provided in the residence hall.
The right to personal privacy.
The right to redress of grievances through the University Hearing & Appeals System.
The right to be free from physical or psychological intimidation, harassment, and/or harm.

With rights come responsibilities. As a member of the residential community at Northwestern University, you agree to the following responsibilities:

Treating other residents with respect and consideration and guaranteeing them their individual rights.
Understanding all policies and regulations necessary for the hall community to function and abiding by those rules (contained in the Student Handbook, University Housing Rules & Regulations, housing contract and other official University publications and postings).
Being responsive to all reasonable requests from fellow students.
Being responsive and cooperative in all dealings with Residential Services staff members and other University officials.
Accepting responsibility for personal and community safety, e.g., refraining from misusing safety equipment, propping open security doors and losing, forgetting or duplicating front door/room keys.