Because the journalism department frequently has a waiting list for courses, Writing for the Media and Editing, its policy is to maintain full enrollment in these courses. Students who drop one of the courses after the first meeting of the class interfere with the department’s efforts to assist all students in completing their journalism studies in a timely fashion. To discourage students from dropping one of the courses, the department imposes a one-semester penalty for courses. In other words, students who drop a course will have to wait one additional semester before re-enrolling in that course. This penalty will be waived if the drop occurs in a timeframe that allows another student to take the newly vacated seat or if there is no waiting list at the time.