The 49th Student Council E m e r g e n c y M e a s u r e Committee announced that from the upcoming fall semester, the course dropping system would be adopted in Hanyang University (HYU) Seoul Campus. The course dropping system is a policy for students who have decided to drop a course after the correction period, following the start of class. This is distinct from the original course dropping system, which refers to dropping the credit after the completion of the whole course. The new course dropping period will be held four weeks after the start of the semester, and for this fall semester, it is expected to be held from 11 a.m. on September 27 to 12 a.m. on September 29. Students will be limited in the number of courses they can drop to a maximum of two. In addition, only the students who have registered above the minimum number of credits will benefit from this system. During this period, additional enrollment of classes will be unavailable and only the dropping of courses will be allowed. Furthermore, the re-enrollment of the courses that have already once been dropped will be unavailable. Also, students who have a grace period for earning their bachelor’s degree will not be able to drop courses. Lastly, students who have extended their period of study and are retaking courses can utilize the dropping system. However, tuition fees will not be refunded. HYU’s Stance To understand more about the discussion process l e a d i n g t o t h e adoption of this system, we held a n i n t e r v i e w with Jeong Jih o , t h e C h i e f of the Central Executive Committee of the Student Council. He said that the necessity of the course dropping system was constantly discussed for the past two to three years in diverse school communities. Especially, due to COVID-19, a lot of courses switched to online classes, and there were cases when the pre-existing course reviews did not help students choose whether to take the course or not. Thus, it was discussed to reduce such problems. Chief Jeong clarified that the first discussion offer was made in April, during the Division of Industrial Convergence’s executive board meeting. The necessity of the course dropping system was recognized, and thus after analyzing the examples of other schools’ course dropping systems during the first half of the year, the issue was brought up at Efficient Teaching Task Force Team (hosted by the Office of Academic Affairs). Chief Jeong shared that the OAA was concerned about the side effects regarding indiscreet usage and tuition refund problems at first. Thus, the representative of the school identified the problems that might occur by carrying out surveys with the school’s governing body. The major problems identified were “majors with a small population would have high possibilities of class closure,” and “relative evaluation courses, might affect grades due to the decrease of students taking the course.” He shared that, through the discussion with the OAA, they decided that the classes will not be closed even if the numbers of students enrolled is lower than the standard limit. Also, relative evaluation for a course may be changed to absolute evaluation when the student enrollment numbers become lower than the absolute evaluation standards. Professor’s Stance Since the course dropping system was newly introduced this semester, it seemed that the professors were not alert of the whole discussion process of the policy. Most encountered the policy first through the official papers from the student administration team. Kim Chi-sung, Professor of the D e p a r t m e n t o f Korean Language and Literature, s h a r e d h i s opinions of the possible effects that the course dropping system could have on students. He said, “I believe that course dropping would surely be considered pleasant for students since it would provide students with an option of dropping the course if it does not fit their expectations. They can get rid of their worries of attending an unsatisfactory class until the end of the semester, and it would be comparatively easy to manage good grades. However, a course may possess different characteristics in the first half and the second half of the term, and if a class meets satisfactory standards in the second half, students might end up missing a good class due to their rash judgment. Furthermore, during the semester, students may go through concerns and confusion whether they should take the course or not. I am also concerned about the closure of classes with a small number of students as well as possibly less dynamic contents of the lecture.” Student’s Stance Since the students are the ones directly affected by the adoption of the new policy, we interviewed a few students to speculate on their opinions. Kim Gee-hyun, a Sophomore from the Division of International Studies shared her opinion on the course dropping system. “I definitely felt the need to drop some courses throughout my time in university. There were some courses that were either too hard or uninteresting. Therefore, I believe that the course dropping system is a positive way to reconsider my interests and limits. Due to the new system, the lucky thing is that you do not have to rush yourself to think about whether you want to drop a course or not. You have more time to think about whether you can handle the course. Also, there will be less pressure for all the students in general.” Lee Seunghyun, a Sophomore from the Department of English Language and Literature expressed positive opinions toward the policy as well. “Some classes don’t exactly follow the instructional planning. In addition, one week is too short to estimate the quality of the course, so the policy is in need. Moreover, by this policy, students would be able to spend a fine semester with the classes they want and it would encourage them to participate in classes. Instead of dropping the course, students would be able to take courses which they feel confident about and make greater progress.” Students can be given the authority to choose the courses they really want. However, some students seemed to be unaware of when the course dropping system is to proceed. Some think the course dropping may be conducted after the mid-term period. However, this is not true as the course dropping system will be conducted four weeks after the first week of semester. Conclusion New policies always act as a doubleedged sword. The positive effects of the policy should manifest for both students and professors. However, we should see how the policy works throughout this semester. Students should be reminded that their decisions of course dropping may negatively impact other students. Hence, they should be thoroughly aware of it. Especially, courses that require teamwork may be crucially affected by student decisions. Therefore, students should not regard the course dropping system as their first option, but at the last resort.