The Skyline Academic Senate will be discussing and voting on a new policy for auditing classes on Friday May 23. Skyline’s current auditing policy states that there are certain classes that may be audited, and a student who wishes to audit the class must register only after the Late Registration Period has ended. For a student to qualify to audit the class they must have taken it for the maximum amount of times for Credit/No Credit, get the instructors permission, and can only enter if space is available.”A student auditing a class is just there,” Counselor Carla Campillo said.”It’s like they are sitting and observing they don’t get a grade.” The current policy states that a teacher cannot audit a class; however they can sit in on a certain day for a certain lecture.The debate that the Academic Senate is having is whether or not students should still be allowed to audit classes, and if teachers should be able to as well.”The thing is, the student who is auditing the class is still taking a seat,” Professor of Athletics Chip Chandler said. “They are there taking the teachers time, the only difference is they aren’t getting a grade for it.”Chandler would like to be able to sit in and audit other professors’ classes, because there could be an advantage to seeing how another teacher presents information, and how it could help his classes out.According to ASSC Senator Bob Alberts teachers want to take classes that are outside of their major, because it is something that interests them, but they do not want to have to pay all of the fees that come with registering for a class.According to 6.31 Auditing Courses, which is the new legislature that might be passed, an auditing fee of $15 per unit will be payable when the person enrolls.SMCCCD colleges will allow a student to audit a class, if there isn’t any special preparation required, and if it is not a course with limited admission.”If you look at the course catalog there are classes listed that can be audited,” Alberts said. “But those are few.”An argument for allowing teachers to audit classes is that they will be able to mix teaching styles and ideas. Being able to see the difference in how a philosopher thinks, and a historian and a math professor on the same subject is something that would help the teachers according to Chandler.However most teachers are against students auditing a class because they aren’t working towards a degree, and they are possibly replacing a student who really needs the class.”I have told students ‘I don’t think this is good, you’re taking up so much of my time,’ Chandler said. “And told them to join as credit/no credit.”