A new committee that will analyze the Inter House Council (IHC) Constitution and make necessary changes is slated to convene next week for the first of five meetings.
IHC President Lindsey Bruett '09, who led the search for committee members, said she realized the constitution was outdated last year.
"As President of Quinby last year, I realized that the IHC Constitution needed to be updated and felt that a revision would be very helpful to the house leaders," Bruett told the Orient.
The IHC Constitution, which was written in 1997 after the College abolished fraternities, has not been reformed since.
"The IHC Constitution was written by some of the first students in the College Houses in the very late 1990s," Director of Residential Life Kim Pacelli wrote in an e-mail to the Orient. "It's time to take a fresh look to see whether or not some improvements can be made."
Bruett cited the roles of certain house officers, as well as election procedures, as areas that needed to be clarified in the document.
"For example, the Constitution states that each house should have two representatives from each proctor group in its affiliate dorm as well as a non-resident member from each of the sophomore, junior, and senior classes," she said. "These positions have not been filled during my time at Bowdoin."
Bruett also mentioned the role of the IHC Executive Committee, its election process, and its representation in Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) as areas that need to be addressed when the committee convenes.
She also pointed out that the roles of some house officer positions are not clearly defined in the constitution.
"House officer positions, such as programming chair and historian, also need to be better defined," Bruett said.
Bruett said that the committee'12 students who range from seniors to first years?brings together individuals with a variety of experiences with the College House System.
"The goal is that the committee will have a balance of students from different classes and with varying degrees of involvement in the College House System," Bruett said.
Though the changes would ideally be implemented before the 2008-2009 academic year, Pacelli said it was more important that the committee thoroughly and thoughtfully address the important issues.
"Though the Office of Residential Life is eager to have this process wrapped up in order to get the new houses organized for the fall, it's equally important that we take the time to 'get it right' and discuss all the relevant issues," Pacelli said.