[Starman_Jones]

"Labs" as in the physical facilities, not the class credits. Computer labs are one example - my school had a Linux lab that, uh, wasn't much used outside of CS/IT/maybe EE. There's also lab equipment for research professors - a nice oscilloscope can cost more than a new car, and students won't ever actually get to use that. Not saying it's wrong - I really appreciated that Linux lab - but it's definitely not equality between departments.

For your second point, I've never heard of a university that charges different credit rates for different majors (outside of special stuff like paying for certain PE classes), but that seems like it would be a university policy, not a department policy.