The Inter-Residence Hall Association passed a bill that will attempt to establish better communication with the Department of Residence at its Thursday meeting.

The bill, which passed with unanimous approval, will change how the Department of Residence will inform IRHA of the annual revisions to the Room and Board Contract.

“We wanted to make a policy about how the Department of Residence went about making changes to the Terms and Conditions,” said Bill Wychulis, Towers Residence Association at-large.

The bill asks the Department of Residence to send a representative to IRHA parliament to present a hard copy of proposed changes in the spring before IRHA votes to approve the contract.

Copies of the proposals will be provided to all hall directors, hall desks, resident assistants and residence hall association student governments. IRHA members also will discuss the changes with their constituents.

IRHA will give feedback to the Department of Residence before it makes any changes. The department then will present the finalized changes to IRHA.

“It’s a checks-and-balances type of deal,” IRHA President Dave Sims said.

The bill was proposed after IRHA members discovered a new clause in the Terms and Conditions requiring students to leave the residence halls 24 hours after their last final in the spring semester. IRHA has passed a bill that expressed its disapproval of the policy.

In response to the bill, Department of Residence officials are working to change the 24-hour policy.

Currently, residence administrators have proposed alternative language for the spring check-out policy that would encourage students to check out within 24 hours of their last finals to maintain an atmosphere conducive to studying in the residence halls.

The alternative policy would allow for a student to be removed from the residence halls within 24 hours of the student’s last final if he or she is distracting other students.

In other business, IRHA unanimously passed a bill to allocate $500 to pay for a presentation on date rape by Katie Koestner on Feb. 9.

“This is a good chance for our residents to hear a good speaker that deals with a serious problem,” said Brian Cameron, TRA president.

IRHA amended the bill to reduce the allocation from $700 to $500, matching the amount given by Theta Chi fraternity.

Parliament also introduced a bill which would mandate that all residence hall rooms have an Ethernet hook-up automatically installed.

Currently, each room has the capability for Ethernet access, but they must request to have the high-speed Internet access cable hooked up.

The bill is scheduled to be voted on at IRHA’s next meeting, which will be held next semester.