The number of individuals diagnosed with probable H1N1 at Gannett has slightly increased during the past two weeks, yet such statistics remain drastically lower than those during the peak of the illness at the beginning of the semester.

As soon as President Skorton signs off on Resolutions 13, 14 and 15, the Student Assembly will begin the process of implementing extensive reforms to on-campus housing. While the S.A. approved the resolutions on Oct. 15, S.A. Vice President Nikhil Kumar ’11 said that “Right now we’re basically in limbo because we have to wait for President Skorton to sign off on [the resolutions].”

Along with Resolution 12 — a Sense-of-the-Body resolution which does not require Skorton’s approval — the housing legislation will create in-house lottery systems in the Collegetown dorms, restructure the general housing lottery system, mandate the online release of general information on previous housing lottery results and increase student voice in Resident Housing Director selections.

The most substantial changes were included in Resolution 13, which reverses the time slots for the general housing lottery so that sophomores will gain priority, followed by juniors, and then finally seniors.

Kumar sees such changes to the current system, in which seniors are given top priority, in keeping with University policy.

The idea of giving priority to juniors and seniors essentially undermines the University’s guarantee of on-campus housing for freshmen and sophomores, Kumar explained.

“Right now Campus Life only guarantees housing for the first two years but the idea of Resolution 13 is to put sophomores first in line and then juniors and seniors second and third,” he said.

Kumar, who sponsored Resolutions 12, 13 and 14, explained his motivation for pursuing such significant changes to Cornell’s on-campus housing procedures. “Housing reform was one of the two parts of my platform when I ran for S.A. this year,” he said, “and I think a lot of students when they went through the lottery process felt that it wasn’t fair because although sophomores are guaranteed [on-campus] housing they get the worst housing.”

Resolution 14 — which also requires President Skorton’s signature — calls for the Department of Campus Life to release the results of 2008 and 2009 housing lotteries both to the S.A. and online, where the information will be generally available to the Cornell community.

“A lot of times students want to find out what their chances are of getting into particular housing and in previous years that information hasn’t been released [to students] and we figured that [Resolution 14] would give students the opportunity to see how hard certain residences are hard to get into,” Kumar explained.

Resolution 12, which will only affect Cascadilla Hall and Sheldon Court, “Calls for an in-house lottery system for the Collegetown residences,” Kumar said.

The continuing occupancy lottery system that will be instituted in the Collegetown dorms will be “…similar in function and form to those in the West Campus House System,” according to the resolution.

Unlike the other housing resolutions, though, Resolution 12 does not require Skorton’s signature.

“It was a Sense-of-the-Body resolution so we suggested that Campus Life implement that over the next few years but we didn’t mandate it yet,” Kumar said.

Resolution 15 seeks to bolster student involvement in the selection of RHDs by creating two student positions on the Screening Committee for Residence Hall Director. One of the student positions will represent program housing, while the other will represent standard residential dorms.

The resolution’s sponsor, Jonathan Rau ’12, Arts and Sciences representative, expressed his desire to see the legislation implemented as quickly as possible.

“It’s a time sensitive issue [so] we’d like to get kids on the committee as soon as possible,” Rau said. “Campus Life has already started the search process so basically we’re just waiting for the approval of President Skorton for [this resolution] to go into effect. It’s just a matter of technicality when Skorton passes it.”