For the second time in two weeks, Student Council voted last night against requiring the publication of individual voting records on the organization's Web site.
Under the bill proposed last Tuesday by Gavin Reddick, a representative from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Council would have to record and publish the votes of members on all legislation, something that is only done now when a roll call vote is taken.
Council members also would have been given the opportunity to publish explanations for their votes.
"I think it is a perfectly reasonable thing to implement," Reddick said. "What we're [currently] telling the students is 'just trust us.'"
Council President Noah Sullivan voted for the bill.
"Individual voting records are only threatening to the courage of representatives if people are unwilling to withstand scrutiny to stand up for their decisions," Sullivan said.
A number of Council members, however, did not want the operation of the organization to be over-politicized by the publication of voting records.
"We've got to keep perspective on what this really is -- this is not Washington, D.C.," Council Director of University Relations Peter Farrell said. "These voting records are going to be used to blast you in the paper. This is political bulls**t."
College Rep. Josh Eubank also expressed concern about making the process too political.
"We're not talking about a governing party with enough power to abuse it," he said. "What's going to result is the politicization of the process. How many times have I heard, 'how will this look in the paper?' Frankly, I don't care how this looks in the paper."
In addition, a handful of representatives were concerned about the logistics and technicalities of posting voting records and rationales online.
"This [bill] does not go through the detail required," Engineering Rep. Kevin Sproule said. "There need to be specifics about what will go into the recording of votes."
After lengthy discussions and debates, 10 voting members supported the bill, while 15 voted against it, meaning that the bill fell well short of the two-thirds majority required to amend Council's bylaws.
Reddick then called for a roll call vote, ironically requiring the recording of individual votes on a bill that would involve the future recording of Council votes.
"We should not be afraid of letting people know what goes on here," he said.
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