Over the past couple of decades, common course numbering systems have been executed in Colorado and North Carolina, saving community colleges, universities and students money, while conveniently providing Arizona a system for us to emulate.
Each system aligns transferable courses, meaning that comparable classes have the same prefix and number no matter where it is taken.
During last year’s legislative session, the Arizona Students’ Association, or ASA, drafted, lobbied and campaigned around Senate Bill 1186, originally known as the Postsecondary Institutions; Common Course Numbering bill.
Receiving bipartisan support, the legislation passed unanimously in the Arizona Senate and was signed by Gov. Jan Brewer.
Because of its success in other states, this experience would dictate that aligning courses at Arizona’s higher education institutions would be tedious, yet straightforward and a wise investment in the long run.
However, the Arizona Board of Regents, or ABOR, is going against positive precedents set nationally by proposing a collective code for Arizona called the “shared unique numbering” system, or SUN.
Sadly, this proposal simply reinforces a current, existing system that is faulty, known as the Arizona Common Course Equivalency Guide, and goes directly against why students, including myself, spent an entire year lobbying for common course numbering in the first place.
According to Elma Delic, the Chairwoman for ASA, the negotiation for the new system has taken place with an utter lack of transparency and little student input, while failing to ease the issue of transfers between post-secondary institutions.
She states on the ASA Chair website, “[SUN] perpetuates the problem by adding a third layer of bureaucracy for students to navigate.”
Common course numbering brings financial savings, decreases bureaucracy, enhances student’s aptitude to map out college, minimizes misinformation and reduces contradictory transfer results.
In the larger scheme, though, ABOR and the university administration have created a situation where ASA must divert its limited resources to once again advocate for an issue that should have already been resolved.
This is occurring in the midst of bigger and more pressing issues, such as privatization of Arizona State University, budget cuts and institutionalized oppression in the public education system.
In the future, ABOR must respect the student voice instead of actively participating in marginalizing this community of Arizonans.
If instances like this continue to reoccur, students and their families will continue to lose faith in our current regents.
Tuition talks are the first item on the menu this year, but so far things do not look promising.
Let’s hope that the regents might learn from their past mistakes and that they will represent the students and their families better.
Reach Athena at asalman3@asu.edu
