The  School of Mechanical Engineering of Pusan National University (PNU) will hold a “compulsory” sports day in three days, an event which had disappeared with COVID-19. It caused students to complain about it. They argue that this is unfair to hold the substantially worthless sports day and count it under the attendance of classes.

On October 20th, the School of Mechanical Engineering announced on the website that it would hold the sports day in PNU grand stadium from 9 AM to 12 PM on October 27th. Group messages were even sent to freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors who are taking the “Capstone 1” class, all of whom have to attend the sports day. According to the PNU School of Mechanical Engineering, attendance is reflected in the attendance score of the class, and that could be confirmed unexpectedly. In addition, group meetings are scheduled immediately after the event, so students need to participate.

The students claim that compulsory participation in the event is unjustifiable based on its’ disadvantages. On October 20th, after the schedule was announced, on the PNU anonymous community, “Everytime,” postings were uploaded with content such as “Is it possible to gather more than 1,000 people at the same time?,” “It doesn't make sense to force us to join this event.” The anonymous student A, who will participate in the sports day for the first time, said, “I don’t think that this event can make friends get close and group meetings with professors go well.” The anonymous student B, who is a junior and took part twice before, said, “I had to wait for a long time because the college forced us to join despite the low attendance. I have to participate in this event for my attendance of two major lectures.”

The School of Mechanical Engineering insists that the sports day needs to be maintained despite complaints year after year. That is because, given the characteristics of the college, students have to be taught how to cooperate in order to be trained as engineers. The staff of the administrative office said, “Our department has the responsibility to train engineers, and they need the ability to solve problems with teamwork. We think the sports day is big and important enough to be held on Thursday when the major lectures are mostly taken. Also, students can have meetings to access their grades on other days, but through sports day, they will be able to get more opportunities than students who do not.”

Students argue that in order for a college event to truly promote unity, the inducement methods need to be included, not disadvantages. It points out that appropriate alternatives must be taken to meet the purpose of unity and the autonomy of students. Student C (Dept. of Mechanical & Engineering, 17) said, “ I think unity itself is important, but nowadays, Generation MZ doesn't like this trend. Another student D said, “the Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering holds a competition to utilize the major, and I want to join a CAD modeling competition rather than the sports day.”

According to “the 2021 PNU Annual Report,” as of April 1st, the number of students who enrolled in the School of Mechanical Engineering was 1,327. This number is the largest among colleges and departments, and more than the number of students who enrolled in the College of Economics & International Trade (1,289).

Reporter Kim Min-Sung

Translated by Park Yeon-Hee