(MEREDITH SHAMBURGER/The Daily Campus)

Editor’s Note: The following is Part 2b in our “Hidden on the Hilltop: SMU’s Culture of Secrecy” series, which examines the secretive nature of various operations at SMU.

For the rest of the series: Part 1, Part 2a, Part 3, Part 4

 In order to determine how often Student Senators recorded their votes, The Daily Campus looked at Student Senate records from the past five years, from May 2005 to April of 2010.

Student Senate keeps files for meeting agendas and minutes, legislation and governing documents. These files are available to the public in the Student Senate office. 

Files for the past three years are available online at smu.edu/studentsenate.

Minutes or agendas for the month of December 2006 and the spring semester of the 93rd Student Senate were not available in the Student Senate Public Information Files. 

According to the Senate governing documents, senators have four ways of voting: voice, show of hands, roll call and secret ballot. 

Only a roll call vote puts a senator’s name to his vote. 

There is no rule that states a roll call vote must be used for specific issues, only “important issues.”  

There is also no rule that a senator cannot write legislation which would change the bylaws and call for roll call votes to be mandatory.

The bylaws state that secret ballot votes should be used “when conducting elections within the chamber, when resolving an impeachment, or if a particularly contentious issue demands secrecy in the voting process.” 

The Senate bylaws call for a voice vote in most cases, although the Speaker can decide if votes should be taken a different way. 

Senators can also request that votes be tallied in a different way.

The Daily Campus found that Student Senate has voted on 92 bills since May 2005 by reviewing meetings and agendas and keeping a running tally of every vote mentioned. 

Roll call votes were listed in the meeting minutes by listing each senator and their vote.

Unanimous votes have been recorded on 22 other pieces of legislation, although they did not use the roll call vote in these instances. 

Unanimous votes are determined in voice or hand votes if no one speaks or raises their hand during the time for nays or abstentions. 

While no one votes against a bill or abstains, unanimous voting does not allow verification that every senator present at the meeting actually voted.

Split votes, meaning it was not unanimous, have occurred on 64 bills. 

The Daily Campus found that sometimes numbers were counted on split votes, such as 30-6-0 (30 for, six against, no abstentions), but no record of which senators voted and how is recorded.