by Eunhye Ko
In the first week of October assignments start to mount up and students start to get ready for midterm exams. This is also the period when students are allowed to drop classes. According to records from the Office of Faculty and Academic Affairs, about five percent of Ewha students withdraw from classes during the class withdrawal period every semester. Dropping classes may be a simple thing for students to do, but for remaining students and professors, the consequences are felt throughout the rest of the semester.
Students who do not drop classes are influenced by those who do drop. "The English Grammar class I took in spring semester was very difficult to follow, and some of my classmates dropped out. But the fact that some classmates dropped out of class irritated me a lot. It made me want to withdraw from the class too," said Kim Mi-roo (English Education, 1).
The problems get serious when students are assigned team projects. "In the Marketing Management class I took, we were assigned a team project and each team consisted of eight people. However, one member suddenly took a temporary break from school and two other members withdrew from the class. Our group was left with only five people. To complete a project which required lots of helping hands, we had to work extra hard as each of us had to share a bigger burden than other groups would have," said Choi Young-eun (Economics, 4). "During the presentation our members became anxious that our group might not be as well organized as other groups because of fewer people,"she added.
Not only students but also professors feel some discomfort when students drop out of classes. For Mythic Imagination and Culture class, if the students who are assigned team assignments eventually withdraw from the class, the professor tries to manage alternatives for remaining students. "In this situation, I gave them individual assignments and delayed the due dates so the students would have enough time to work on it," said Professor Cho Yoon-kyung (French Literature).
Professor Moon Hwa-ra (Korean Literature) made an announcement about class withdrawals when assigning group projects during her Korean Language and Writing class. "There could be students who withdraw from class. When we begin to have the team projects, you have to keep in mind that this problem could happen, but I cannot rearrange the groups. I hope students will react flexibly to the situation and try their best on their projects," said Moon.
Without clear solutions, students cannot but wish that their classmates do not drop the course and wish students could consider others students' situation more before they drop classes," said Kim.