Kristen O’Brien goes to a class knowing she won’t receive credit. The 21-year-old English senior doesn’t need the class for her major and isn’t enrolled in it.
“It sounded like stuff that I would want to know later on in life,” O’Brien said. “Things that I wanted to use.”
Although O’Brien is not paying for the extra workload, other students are paying for classes they won’t receive credit for.
Students, staff and faculty can audit classes. Although students will have to pay for the class, they won’t receive a grade or credit at the end of the semester.
Joseph Spillane, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences associate dean for student affairs, said the university would prefer if students didn’t sit in on classes without registering.
But, Spillane said, formally applying to audit a course is simple. If there is space, a student can fill a form out with the approval of the college and submit it.
Yumiko Hulvey, an associate professor of Japanese, has had students audit her classes before.
“I had an auditor who took all the quizzes,” Hulvey said. “But she elected not to write any of the papers. It depends on how much the auditor wants to be a part of the class.”
O’Brien said she wants to do assignments but doesn’t want to buy the course pack.
“I don’t see a reason that a student couldn’t just sit and learn,” she said. “It’s better than students skipping.”
A version of this story ran on page 8 on 9/10/2013 under the headline "A different kind of sit-in: Students pay for classes, don’t receive credit"
