Jocie Tashabawatan, a freshman MCA major from Eugene, Oregon, lead a successful push this week to have all numbers eliminated from the MCA course catalog, to be replaced by more soothing colors. “This is a big win for the numeralaphobic population at King’s. We’d love to see this change adopted across all departments but we’re happy with the start.”

Up until recently, MCA classes had an alphanumeric “course code” that was used to identify the class as students began registration and would mark the class on transcripts. For example, a senior-level media level, The Enterprise Of Mass Communication, was marked as MED251 for the Fall 2019 semester. Many students found this code to be abrasive and even triggering for some students who may be afraid of numbers as a result of traumatic experiences in the past.

In a compromise, the Registrar of the college agreed that changes would benefit students and agreed to replace all numbers in the course with colors that may be more agreeable to some students. “We understand that a growing portion of the student population here at King’s may find numbers unnecessarily harsh, so in a series of discussions with the student activists, colors were decided to be the best replacement,” the Registrar’s office said via email.

Instead of MED251, The Enterprise of Mass Communication will be marked as ||||||||||||||||||||| for the Spring semester of 2020.

While the substantial numeralphobic community of King’s is overjoyed, there are a number of color-blind students who are horrified at the change. Jill Dickerson, a colorblind MCA major, said, “I cannot believe the most progressive major would take an action to further oppress the colorblind community. I don’t think I have any other choice but to accept my Daddy’s trust fund money and move back to the Hamptons to be an artist.” Other colorblind students simply switched to an actual major, like Finance or PPE.

While the student population of the MCA department is largely approving of the change, students from other areas of campus had some doubts. Joe Daverson, a sophomore PPE major, said, “This concerted attack on numbers is just a long-term attempt for the MCA Department to finally have a student pass Microeconomics. I’ve got news for them. F is not a number.”

(The MCA Department and Dr. Kinlaw, the MCA Department Chair, did not respond to requests for comment.)