Skyline College President Frances White made public Skyline’s desire to change the district’s policy on dropping students for not paying their fees at a College Council meeting held on Sept. 24. Stemming from this event, meetings will be held soon in that regard. The policy, as it stands in the schedule of classes, states that students must pay their fees, at least in part, before a certain date in order to avoid being dropped from the system. The last day to pay fees for the fall was Sept. 4. According to Vice President of Student Services, Rosemary Ybarra-Garcia, on that day an estimated 900 students were dropped from Skyline alone.”Some of those students are students who never intended to come back, they were just on the rolls taking up space,” Ybarra-Garcia said. “But other students were students that registered, but forgot to pay their fees, and others are students who registered and were attending, but they maybe couldn’t afford it right away. I think the ones who forget are a big group, and the ones that can’t afford to pay their fees are quite a big group too.”White said this presents an increasingly large problem for students in a time of economic hardships.”At a time when we’re increasing fees on the state level, and at a time when people are out of work, I believe the policy penalizes students an opportunity for access,” White said. “The policy is precipitous; the policy doesn’t allow for more opportunity to pay. We’re in a period of enrollment decline. My concern is that we exacerbate that. At least at Skyline we’re looking to a solution, not continuing to embrace a problem.”Not only has this become an issue at Skyline, but it has also raised questions and concerns at College of San Mateo (CSM) and Cañada.The chancellor’s council is looking into the matter, and they have invited the three deans of admission management from the San Mateo County Community College District (SMCCCD) to participate in their next meeting, which will be held on Nov. 18, according to Ybarra-Garcia. The three representatives are Sherri Hancock of Skyline, Henry Villareal of CSM, and Ruth Miller of Cañada. They will be discussing possible ways to better change the districts drop policy.”It’s created what I call a downward spiral,” White said of the policy. “I have a problem with that. I really am struggling with that, and I know I’m not the only president who is struggling with that.”For now the policy remains unchanged, but administrators are backing students and pushing for change.”Administrators help form a lot of policies,” White said. “But I really would like to see more people ask why it can’t be changed. I really believe it eliminates access, and it penalizes opportunity.”