Economics 5, Women's Studies 72 and Anthropology 10 are each introductory courses in their respective departments. With such variance between course numbers, students might feel like they need an intro class just to understand what level class they are taking.
While the non-standard course numbers at Tufts might confuse students come registration time, they can provide an even bigger headache for departments and curricula, who are now being required to find permanent numbers to accommodate the recently implemented Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS), which tracks students degree credits digitally.
Jo Ann Jack, Registrar for Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, explained that generally, larger numbers indicate higher level courses. "The basic rule of thumb is anything 0-99 is undergraduate only, 100-199 is undergraduate and graduate and 200-299 is graduate only," she said.
However, aside from these standards, individual course numbers do not follow a particular pattern at Tufts.
"There is no rhyme or reason to the way the courses are numbered [across departments], which I find really unfortunate," Jack said. For example, intro courses have different numbers depending on the department.
Instead of a uniform system, individual departments choose their own method for assigning numbers to courses.
"Each department has their own way of doing things, and Tufts is very much that kind of culture. There's no cookie cutter, which can be challenging," Jack said.
Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser explained that allowing departments to be in charge of their numbering fits each field's particular needs.
"It's decentralized so every department has its own numbering conventions and can organize the classes in some way that makes sense and is easy to administer," Glaser said. "Because every discipline is quite different, you couldn't impose a template that would work exactly the same for everybody."
Glaser said that although the numbers might not seem to follow a pattern, certain departments are making changes to bring method to the madness. For example, the political science department numbers have been reorganized so that the subject matter of a course is reflected in its numbering.
"These are decisions to make it so that you can look at the number and know something about the classes," Glaser said. "I can tell by a number whether [a course] fits the comparative politics subfield or the international relations subfield. Sometimes from the title, it's difficult to tell, but by looking at the number, I know that."
A move to a more universal numbering system would also be extremely difficult with the current computer systems in place, according to Jack.
"We'd have to end every single course in the main frame and then create the courses over again. There's no automated way to do that," Jack said. "It would be a very overwhelming task."
Although course numbers used to change frequently, many departments have overhauled this system because of DARS, which was unveiled in several phases over the past two years.
DARS is a computer program that allows users to enter courses and determine which distribution and major requirements they have fulfilled. Degree Audit Administrator Carol Downing used to certify each degree by hand, Jack said, until the development of DARS. The DARS application requires that course numbers remain consistent from year to year.
"It used to be the numbers could change from year to year. For [a hypothetical] example, one class might be titled, 'Women in America' one year, and the next year, the same course might be 'Men in America.' But you can't do a degree audit when it changes. Because of DARS, we've cleaned up a lot of the numbering," Jack said.
Faculty members now must add frequently taught courses into the regular curriculum.
"The changes are made to make operationalizing DARS possible, and that means finding permanent numbers," Glaser said. "Occasionally faculty would teach a special topic for several years, but DARS forced them to make it a regular number and make it part of the regular curriculum. That's the kind of thing the faculty didn't used to worry about, but we wanted them to move regularly taught courses into the curriculum."
Even with newly cemented curricula, the system is still difficult to manage.
"There's a lot of complexity; there are lots of courses offered," Glaser said. "The registrar has a full-time job just keeping track of everything, keeping good records [and] ensuring that everything works electronically and that the information is reported in a way that makes sense."
"We have a terrific registrar that does a super job managing all these complexities," Glaser added.
But Jack said she understands how the system used at Tufts might leave some students perplexed.
"If I transferred to Tufts, I can see being very confused," she said.
Freshman Emily Anderson said that the numbering was slightly confusing, noting the variation between departments. "I had trouble with my Archaeology course because it was cross-listed as three different things: archaeology, art history and classics," Anderson said. "They were all different course numbers [in each department].
But freshman Oliver Harris didn't find the numbers difficult to interpret, and said he thought a more conventional system would be less appealing to students.
"I don't think it's confusing. Once you take five seconds to look at the brochure you know what [the class] is," he said. "I feel like when you look at something called Mathematics 101, it gives the feel that it's a big, impersonalized lecture hall."
Whether Jumbos love it or hate it, the current numbering system is here to stay.
"It's a gift of the past," Glaser said.
