Bates College | Bates Word Usage

We welcome and encourage questions about any of these style and usage rules.

administrative departments: preferred usage is "Name-office": Advancement office, Admissions office, Dean of Students office. Also capitalize stand-alone references: The president involved Advancement and Admissions to create the publication. When "office" is not used, capitalize the department: The award went to Dining Services and Physical Plant.

adviser: the preferred spelling

alphabetizing, lists, and rosters: alphabetize by Bates name (the name the person had at Bates) when the list is class-specific, such as a list of Bates Fund donors for the Class of 1985, the order of alums in Class Notes in Bates Magazine or in Class Letters. If the list includes multiple class years and/or non-alumni, alphabetize by their last name. Do not include courtesy titles (Dr., Mrs.) or academic degrees (Ph.D.).

alumni, alumnus, alumna, alumnae:

alumni (pronounced "-nie," as in "pie," at the end) is preferred when form describing a group including men and women or all men.
alumnus is a male
alumna is a female
alumnus/a may be used when describing man/woman in gender neutral writing.
alumnae (pronounced "-nee" at the end) is plural female.
alums or alum is now acceptible in communications. Note: Anyone who has completed a semester or more of Bates study can be considered an alumnus/a of Bates College.

Alumni Council: when possible refer to this group as the Alumni Council of the Alumni Association. Lowercase all references to "the council."

Bates: the possessive is Bates'.

Batesie: acceptable to describe a Bates student, alumnus, or alumna, though some 1960s alumni may have a pejorative sense of the word.

Bates Magazine: The contemporary name. Founded as The Bates Alumnus, previous iterations have included The Bates Bulletin Alumnus Issue and Bates; The Alumni Magazine.

Bates Fund: Lowercase all standalone references to "the fund." Do not capitalize "the" before the name: We give to the Bates Fund, and we look forward to giving to the fund year after year.

BatesNews: The monthly College e-newsletter produced by the Office of Communications and Media Relations.

Board of Trustees: Uppercase the name of the Bates unicameral board and uppercase "Trustee" when referring to members. Lowercase references to "the board."

buildings: Avoid nicknames, especially the Cage for Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building or the Silo for the Benjamin Mays Center. On first reference in formal writing, try to use the full name of buildings. Always lowercase the name of ongoing building projects — new student housing — to avoid the visual appearance that these projects have already been named. See list of building names.

CBB: The accepted acronym describing any joint ventures, athletic or otherwise, involving Colby, Bates and Bowdoin colleges. Use of other acronyms (BBC, etc.) is confusing and misleading.

committees: capitalize standing committees at Bates, whether they be committees of the Board of Trustees, the Alumni Council, or faculty: Grounds and Building Committee, Academic Standing Committee. Lowercase informal use: He's a member of the search committee.

Commons: An exception to the rule for lowercasing new campus construction projects, the new dining hall is called the new dining Commons.

The Campaign for Bates: Italicize and captialize "The" in The Campaign for Bates: Endowing Our Values in first use. Italicize references to The Campaign for Bates as well. But, lowercase campaign in standalone use. Examples:

We are beginning The Campaign for Bates: Endowing Our Values.
We celebrate major gifts to The Campaign for Bates because they sustain excellence.
Those who are interested in Bates should pay attention to the progress of the campaign.

Class of: capitalize references to Bates graduation classes: He is a member of the Class of '72 or He is a member of the Class of 1972.

class agent: lowercase

class years: whenever possible, in publications, flyers, Web pages, inside addresses on letters, MOUs, include a Bates person's class year. If using smart quotes, the apostrophe should look like this: John Doe ’76. If writing for Web, turn off smart quotes. For students, too, use class years rather than sophomore, junior, etc. See parents.

correct: John Doe '85
correct: Steve Smith '04 (rather than Steve Smith, a sophomore)
wrong: John Doe ('85)
wrong: John Doe, '85
correct: Milton L. Lindholm '35 and Jane Ault Lindholm '37 (preferred)
correct: Milton L. '35 and Jane Ault Lindholm '37
correct: Milton L. and Jane Ault Lindholm '35, '37

the College: Capitalize "the College" only when the phrase is a perfect substitution for "Bates": I love the College, We traveled to the College. But in a sentence like "Our college is great," do not capitalize "college" since inserting "Bates" would make for an awkward phrase.

Commencement: capitalize names of major Bates events.

Convocation: capitalize references to the fall gathering that celebrates the beginning of the academic year.

course names: place formal course names in quotations: He took "Life, Sex, and Cells" from Sharon Kinsman. Note: use course to describe the entire unit; use class to describe individual sessions.

dean's list: lowercase always.

emeritus/emerita: Used directly after the person's rank: Professor Emeritus of History James S. Leamon '55, or Ann B. Scott, professor emerita of music. Generally, members of the faculty with 15 years of service to the College are eligible to be considered for emeritus status on retirement. Emeritus rank of a teaching faculty is always raised to full professor. For example, an associate professor of physical education becomes professor emerita (woman) or emeritus (man) of physical education. Exception: lecturers remain lecturers when granted emeriti status: Marcy Plavin is a lecturer emerita in dance (note "in" not "of").

honorary degree: lowercase references: James Moody received the honorary doctor of humane letters degree. Bates awards the following honorary degrees:

abbreviation        degree                     color of band on hood

D.D.                Doctor of Divinity         red
LL.D.               Doctor of Laws             purple
L.H.D.              Doctor of Humane Letters   white
D.F.A.              Doctor of Fine Arts        brown
D.Sc.               Doctor of Science          yellow (gold)
D.Lit. or Litt.D.   Doctor of Letters          white
D.Mus.              Doctor of Music            pink

(Bates does not award the D.Litt., Doctor of Literature)

library: the George and Helen Ladd Library, the Ladd library, the library.

maiden name/Bates name: try to include an alumna's Bates name: Marianne Nolan Cowan '92, not Marianne Cowan '92.

Mount David Summit: Always spell out "Mount." This event is the annual campus-wide celebration of student academic achievement, highlighting undergraduate research; student creative work in art, dance, theater, music and film/video; projects conducted in the context of academic courses; and service-learning.

Museum of Art: refer to the College museum as the Bates College Museum of Art in first references. Second references can be to the Museum of Art or the museum. Refer to the museum's location in the Olin Arts Center when appropriate (such as explaining where it is on campus), but always avoid constructions such as the Olin Arts Museum.

correct: The Bates College Museum of Art is located within the Olin Arts Center.
wrong: The Olin Art Museum is at Bates College.

Olin Arts Center Concert Hall: note correct title.

Parents & Family Association, Parents & Family Weekend: note rare use of ampersand. But, Office of Alumni and Parent Programs.

parents: parent designations carry the P'XX designation (no space) or GP'XX (grandparent) designation. When a parent has more than one Bates child, begin with the oldest child's class year and add more recent class years, separated by comma and a space. For alumni parents, add parent designation after alumni class year, separated by a comma and a space.

Bates parent: Jane S. Smith P'00
Bates married couple: Jane A. and Erik C. Smith P'03
Bates parent twice: Jane S. Smith P'00, P'02
Bates alumni parent: Victoria Aghababian Wicks '74, P'04.
Bates grandparent: Steve Smith GP'01

professorships: capitalize in all uses and use the preposition in when referring to the professorship alone: The Christian A. Johnson Professorship in Interdisciplinary Studies. Use the preposition of when referring to the holder: Jane Costlow, the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies. When a faculty member has two appointments the professorship is listed second: Carl Benton Straub, professor of religion and Clarke A. Griffith Professor of Environmental Studies.

Reunion: capitalize all references to the Bates alumni gathering in the spring. Use numbers to refer to all Reunions, including the initial one: He celebrated his 5th Reunion last year. Capitalize references to the committee that organizes a class reunion: the Reunion Committee, the Reunion Gift Committee. Lowercase in shortened references: He chaired the committee.

Senior Class Gift: references to the financial gift presented to Bates by the graduating class: the Senior Class Gift, the Senior Gift, the Class Gift, the gift.

service-learning: always hyphenate.

Trustee: uppercase the word Trustee or Trustees when referring to a member of the Bates Board of Trustees. Uppercase the full name of the unicameral group: the Bates College Board of Trustees. Lowercase references to "the board."

Trustees weekend, Trustees meeting: Similar to Parents Fund, no apostrophe is needed in such constructions when ownership is not emphasized and the noun in question is used as an adjective: I'm going to the Sea Dogs game. However, one might write: The trustees' decision thrilled alumni.