President Richard H. Brodhead announced Thursday that he is establishing two new committees to advise him on the status of women on campus and to review the workings of the Athletic Council, the university committee that oversees the athletic program.

The Athletic Council is comprised of faculty, administrators, alumni and students and is chaired by a faculty member. The chair represents Duke at meetings of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. In addition the council is responsible for ensuring the maintenance of academic standards in the athletic program, for monitoring the program's compliance with NCAA and federal rules, such as Title IX, and for advising the president, faculty and other officials on athletic policy issues.

"The group was last reviewed in 1983," Brodhead told the Academic Council Thursday. "It's time for us to ask is it performing the function it was meant to serve."

The review will be led by economics professor Roy Weintraub, a former Academic Council chair, and the committee's work is expected to take from six weeks to two months before returning recommendations, Brodhead said.

The new President's Council on Women will include staff, administrators, faculty and students and comes on the heels of the third anniversary of the launch of the Women's Initiative. Brodhead said there have been significant changes since the initiative's report on the statue of women on campus, but the council is needed to maintain the report's momentum. Brodhead himself will chair the group.

"These aren't problems that will be solved in a year or two," Brodhead said. "One of the things that I admired about [former Duke President] Nan Keohane was her interest on these issues. I am very committed to this work and want to see it continued. We want to keep alive the question of what is the status of women at this university."

The committee's membership will be announced later in the semester.