Student Senate ended the semester with a first: their first rejection of a piece of legislation.

Senate voted not to pass a statement of support for the DREAM Act after debating the measure for about 30 minutes. The vote was 8 for and 19 against with no abstentions.

The DREAM Act would allow undocumented students to become active in their communities by being able to legally work and use their higher education degree, as well as serve in the military. The proposed legislation stated, “The student body of Southern Methodist University supports the DREAM Act.”

Bill co-authors Sens. Alejandra Aguirre (Hispanic-American) and Claudia Sandoval (Lyle) said they respected Senate’s decision not to pass the resolution. Sandoval said she was just glad that Senate was able to learn about the DREAM Act while it was up for discussion.

Opponents of the bill made several arguments against passing it. Sen. Alex Ehmke (Dedman II) told Senate that he had a problem with writing a bill based on a national issue that Senate couldn’t have an impact on.

“What we say here has negligible impact on Washington,” he said.

Sen. Jason Sharp (Law) told Senate that he felt that the DREAM Act itself was “fatally flawed.” He also argued that the issue was not in Senate’s purview.

Supporters of the bill argued with detractors that the DREAM Act would be beneficial to students and that the passage of the resolution would send a positive message to undocumented students.

Sen. Grant Barnes (Perkins) told Senate that he couldn’t “in good conscience vote against the bill,” since he supports the DREAM Act and found that the constituents he talked to were also in favor of the Act.

Fernando Salazar, coordinator of Latino Student Services at SMU, spoke to Senate at the beginning of the meeting and also urged them to pass the resolution.

At the heart of much of the discussion was whether Student Senate should speak for the student body at all about the national issue. Sen. Rachel Fox (Dedman II) argued that she was uncomfortable voting on the bill, since there wasn’t an obvious consensus among the student body.

Sen. Shana Ray (Meadows) proposed changing the wording of the legislation from “student body” to “Student Senate” since senators did not properly gauge how the student body actually felt about the DREAM Act.

“If the Senate passes this bill [with the amendment], then we can know that we’re not passing false legislation,” Ray said.

But Parliamentarian Joseph Esau and Student Body President Jake Torres contended that Student Senate was acting in its elected capacity to speak for the student body and that the original wording of the bill should be left intact.

“Whenever we pass something, that is the voice of the student body,” Torres said. “I don’t think that we necessarily speak as an organization.”

Esau put forth a similar argument and also read the Student Body Constitution aloud. That document establishes Senate as “a forum to represent all students.”

Senate ultimately voted on the legislation with its original wording after first accepting Ray’s proposed amendment and then discarding it.

Senate also passed a resolution that amended the Senate policies and procedures so that it could be consistent with current finance committee policies.

Questions of whether the proposed wording changes gave too much power to the committee itself lead to an amendment that formalized the complaint process for funding requests.

Under the changes, the finance committee will make decisions regarding funding requests during a meeting and individuals or organizations must file any complaints on their decisions no later than 24-hours before the next committee meeting.

Recapping the Semester

Student Senate funded more than $21,000 to various student organizations during the fall 2010 semester. They also awarded 20 students $22,000 in scholarships.

Compared to previous Student Senates, Student Body Secretary Katie Perkins said the semester had “gone really well.” She expects better legislation out of Senate next semester, since new senators have learned the ropes.

Perkins said she was “really proud” that Senate has been able to send meeting minutes and summaries to the student body directly.

Student Body President Jake Torres also said he was proud of the work that Senate has done this semester.

“I think we built on the hard work of the Senate before us,” he said. “I am proud of the work we accomplished, and I look forward to serving the SMU student body next semester.”