True to its name, the committee serves in nothing but an advisory capacity; its only official duty is to forward questions and comments about candidates to the College administration. Although Lewis says he has a set of attributes in mind for a good master--a desire to strengthen the academic atmosphere of the House, a goal of improving the undergraduate experience and the ability to manage a large body of staff and tutors--he does not expect candidates to be superhuman.

"We also don't want masters to feel they have to be micromanagers," he writes. For those that have gone through it, the process works well.

"We are impressed with how much time and effort goes into the selection process," writes Pforzheimer House Master James J. McCarthy in an e-mail message. "The selection process is designed to maximize the likelihood that there are no surprises for any of us after these decisions are made.

"Pfister says he sees clear benefits to the current system that involves students in the decision-making process.

"Now, there's a sense of student involvement, and that's a good thing," he says.

But even as the process expands to include more student input, at least one House leader is calling for Lewis to give current masters more say in filling vacancies.

"We [the masters] have argued for a larger role," says Quincy House Master Michael Shinagel, who also heads the council of masters. "[Masters] know what qualities to look for in a prospective master, and they can help assess the potential of candidates."

Currently, masters have little official role in the selection process, although Lewis says he does solicit candidate suggestions from them and asks candidates to spend time meeting with current masters.

But Lewis says there are no plans to expand the current selection process to include masters.

"It would be a mistake...to think of the collective of the masters as a largely self-perpetuating group, like the faculty in an academic department, whose future members are chosen largely by the current members," Lewis writes. Some other masters say they believe they would have little to add to the master selection process.

"Though I have been through it, I don't feel that I know very much about it," Howard Georgi '68, master of Leverett House, writes in an e-mail message.