Congressional scholars have long analyzed legislative behavior by examining roll call votes. The study of roll call votes has rarely been extended to particular policy areas, with a few exceptions, such as abortion and environmental issues. This study examines roll call voting in the area of higher education policy. In examining voting patterns regarding higher education, this study extends research of legislative voting behavior to a policy area that was once considered to be uncontroversial. This study also sheds light on an important aspect of higher education policymaking. Using a framework described by Clinton et al. (2004), this paper answers several questions regarding senators' voting patterns on higher education policy. These include: (1) What are the characteristics of the voting patterns of individual senators on higher education issues?; (2) To what extent do senators from each party differ on higher education issues?; (3) What issues result in votes along party lines?; and (4) Have divisive votes become more common recent years? The results of this paper suggest that senators fall along a recognizable left-right continuum in their ideal point preferences. Senators who have been described as liberal in other studies have quite different ideal points than those described elsewhere as conservative. The use of Bayesian inference and estimation to analyze roll call data has illuminated many important aspects of Congressional behavior. This study adds to this growing field by demonstrating that this form of analysis also reveals partisan differences in an area which had been long assumed to be non-partisan. (Contains 5 figures and 3 notes.)