"All theme houses were reviewed," said Professor Andrew Parker, who chairs the College Council. "Two of the houses-the German and Russian Houses-need to do another review next spring to see if they implemented our suggestions."
"Instead of just doing a review of each house and reading the reports, we reviewed the structure of the theme houses in general," said Will Johnson '03, who served on the College Council last year.
The report requires all theme houses to add a provision to their constitutions requiring residents to "initiate at least one event per semester, open and advertised to the entire College community that furthers the missions of their particular house."
"The idea was that all theme house residents would initiate projects in the fall and spring," said Parker. "Not all theme houses had that requirement before."
Each theme house will now be given a fixed budget at the beginning of the year, and they will need to apply for any additional, discretionary funding.
The report also created a new distinction between "cultural theme houses," which include Charles Drew House, Asian Culture House, La Casa and Marsh, and the language theme houses, and "alternative living houses," which include Humphries and Health and Wellness. Students will now only be allowed to apply to one cultural theme house, though there will be no restrictions on the number of alternative living houses to which they may apply.
"These are some new procedures. We'll see how they work, and if they don't, they can be changed," said Parker.