History
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the Texas Common Course Numbering System is that its origin cannot be traced back to a state government mandate. The TCCNS arose as a completely voluntary, grass-roots cooperative effort among junior/community colleges and universities. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and its staff have provided advisory support as the TCCNS grew from an idea in the mid-1970s to a regional consortium in the late 1980s to a statewide organization in the early 1990s, but colleges and universities themselves are principally responsible for the emergence of the TCCNS.
1973-1975: TACRAO's Uniform Course Numbering Model
The idea which has evolved into the TCCNS began in November 1973 when the Texas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (TACRAO) appointed a committee to study the feasibility of a uniform course numbering system for all postsecondary institutions in Texas.
The work of the GCCC committee, chaired by Don Pugh of Brazosport College, spanned the two-year period from August 1987 through October 1989.
The committee looked at a number of possible course numbering and articulation arrangements, including the California and Florida models. They finally settled on the basic numbering structure previously proposed by TACRAO, but tied the new course designations to the Coordinating Board's Academic Course Guide Manual to provide a common point of reference for course content, credit value, and sequencing. By 1989, all nine junior/community colleges in the Gulf Coast Consortium had committed to the new numbering system.
1990-1992: The Coordinating Board & TACRAO
In 1990 the Coordinating Board appointed a committee to revise the ACGM. Part of the committee's charge was "to review the feasibility of establishing a common numbering system for the first two years of lower-division coursework in junior/community colleges and universities." The committee recommended that a common course numbering system or a state equivalency table should be developed covering freshman and sophomore level coursework at both junior/community colleges and universities.
The Coordinating Board accepted the committee's report in January 1991 and Dr. Kenneth Ashworth, Commissioner of Higher Education, asked TACRAO president John Edwards for assistance in determining the feasibility of a statewide common course numbering system. Dr. Edwards appointed a Task Force, co-chaired by Dale Hardgrove of San Jacinto College and Zack Prince of UT-Arlington, to work on the project.
In a parallel action, Texas A&M University-Commerce (formerly East Texas State University) hosted a Common Course Numbering Conference in April 1991, bringing together representatives from 15 junior/community colleges and 5 universities in north and northeast Texas. Representatives from the Gulf Coast Consortium shared their experience with the group. As a result of this and a subsequent meeting in June, most of the junior/community colleges in the region chose to convert their course numbers to what was renamed the Texas Common Course Numbering System. Additionally, Texas A&M University-Commerce and Stephen F. Austin State University agreed to list Common Numbers parenthetically in their catalogs alongside their regular course numbers.
The success of these first meetings in east Texas prompted similar meetings in other regions of the state. The Texas Public Community/Junior College Association discussed the project at their summer 1991 conference; as a result, further regional meetings were set up under joint TACRAO and TPCJCA sponsorship throughout the state hosted at Victoria College, Texas Tech University, McLennan Community College, Tarrant County Junior College, and San Jacinto College.
These regional meetings succeeded in persuading institutions to join the project, owing mostly, perhaps, to two factors. First, no commitment was asked of institutional representatives up front; they were asked merely to consider Common Numbering as a possibility. Second, when representatives arrived at the regional meetings they found much of their potential work had already been done for them: the TACRAO Task Force had already drawn up equivalency tables for the lower-division courses offered at the representatives' institutions. While these tables were only speculative on the part of the Task Force and would require scrutiny and approval from the participating institutions, they were a tangible demonstration that Common Numbering could be accomplished.
1992-1993: Statewide Acceptance & Independent Status of the TCCNS
The work of the TACRAO Task Force, combined with the regional meetings, provided an impetus for rapid statewide growth of Common Numbering. To date, 137 institutions participate in the TCCNS. This number includes all public junior/community college districts, all public universities, all state technical college campuses, 21 private institutions, and three health science education institutions.