Retrolefty, thank you for the replies...I don't think I made my question clear enough. I understand that the COM port numbers will be different for each board, but when the board is not recognized as an Uno the PC wasn't automatically applying the driver (even though it had been installed).
Thank you, westfw. That seems to answer my question. So, somewhere along the line the 16U2 IC was probably meant to go on a Mega, but ended up on an Uno?
The board looks like an Uno, works like an Uno, but is identified as a Mega by the PC. This probably would have never been an issue if the PCs in the school could install drivers without admin rights. Even though they use the same driver, the PC doesn't know that. I guess I thought that the PID would be on the ATMEGA328, but I guess it makes sense that it is on the IC that handles the USB connection.
Since I have no desire to replace / reprogram the atmega16U2, I guess I'll just have a microcontroller with identity issues!
Thanks again.