In front of Room B151, B152 and B161 of Ewha-POSCO Building, a number of students lining up to take a seat up front can easily be seen in between classes. There, 200 students or more are packed in like sardines for one hour and 15 minutes jolting down what the professor says through a microphone on the A4-sized desk, only 10 centimeters apart from each other, hardly having a discussion with the professor let alone, eye-contact. Such confined class environment is very familiar especially for Economics major or double major students as most of its courses are assigned to those large-sized rooms and auditoriums, which can accommodate up to 200 students. Also in this semester, two thirds of Economics classes take place there, and as a third grade student majoring in Economics myself, I spend 10 hours a week in the Room B152 for four classes. It is clearly the most cost-effective way available to provide Economics education to all students who want it with limited resources. Also for them, it is a relief that they could have a bigger chance to be one of the 200 winners in the fierce war of unlimited clicking during course registration period and register at least. However, every now and then, Economics majors question ourselves, “is it the just price we pay for choosing a popular major?” With the society emphasizing studying business or economics to get a decent job, Ewha is not the only university where Economics is one of the popular majors with 1,287 majoring and double majoring students. For example, Yonsei, Sogang and Hanyang University have 1,200 1,400 and 1,500 students majoring or double majoring in economics, respectively. On the other hand, the environment of students from other schools studying Economics is quite different. The number of students in each class hardly exceeds 100; for example, Sogang limits seat openings from 30 to 80 for each class. Such contrasting numbers come from the difference in the support universities give. Yonsei, Sogang and Hanyang have 35, 33 and 36 professors in the Department of Economics. And this semester, Yonsei opened 78 classes and Sogang opened 68. On the other hand, Ewha, surprisingly, is providing less than half of what other universities do: 16 professors and 27 classes open this semester. For especially popular courses which non-majoring students also take such as the Principle of Economics, Microeconomics and Macroeconomics, Yonsei, Sogang and Hanyang opened seven to 17 classes to meet the demand, while Ewha opened five Principle of Economics, three Microeconomics and four Macroeconomics classes this semester. After all, to meet the similar level of demand with the remarkably fewer number of professors and classes provided at Ewha compared to other universities, auditorium-like rooms such as the Room B153 of Ewha-POSCO Building turn out to be necessary and somewhat inevitable. Unfortunately, such academic environment troubles both students and instructors; it is too exhausting for professors to speak and deliver their knowledge to the large audience and hinders student concentration, surrounded by a hundreds of students. One of the reasons Economics majors at Ewha proceeded to university is to nurture their academic proficiency through intercommunication with professors and other students, rather than merely look at the screen with over a hundred of students in an oxygen-lacking room. Thus, either largely increasing the number of professors and classes or managing the quantity of students who double major in Economics are in need of some kind of measure. If Ewha aims to become a hub for woman leaders, it should not fall behind.
