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The words we use play a central role in the stories we tell about Berkeley. As we move out of our previous campaign and into the future for which it helped pave the way, we are happy to provide sample messaging in addition to our extensive style guide.

Academic Terms and Usage

Alums and Emeriti

Aim to use terms that are bias-free: alum/alums. Instances exist in which “alumna” or “alumnus” has historically been used: Alumnus of the Year Award, for example. Avoid when possible, but you may need to defer in some instances and use these terms. Use emerita and emeritus since there is no bias-free option at present. Inform partners about biasfree language in this regard when appropriate. Various termsare outlined below.

alumnus (singular masculine) — avoid if possible

alumni (plural masculine) — collective body of men and women; avoid if possible

alumna (singular feminine) — avoid if possible

alumnae (plural feminine) — use when referring to women only; avoid if possible

alum/alums (bias-free option) — use whenever possible

emeritus (singular noun)

emeriti (plural noun)

professor emeritus (singular masculine adjective) Professor Emeritus of English John Smith

professor emerita (singular feminine adjective) Professor Emerita of Mathematics Mary Jones

professors emeriti (plural adjective) The department’s faculty includes six professors emeriti.

chancellor emeritus A new center will be named in honor of Chancellor Emeritus John Smith. The chancellor emeritus was honored.

Awards and Honors

  • the Nobel Prize in physics/Nobel laureate/Nobel Prize winner
  • the Guggenheim Fellowship/the fellowship/the Guggenheim fellow/the fellow
  • Alumnus (or Alumna) of the Year (award title from Berkeley Charter Gala; not bias-free language)
    See Alums and Emeriti on this page.
  • the John Jones Chair in Russian Literature/the Jones Chair/the endowed chair/the chair
  • Vladimir Nabokov, the Jones Professor of Russian Literature/the chairholder
  • the Mary Smith Distinguished Professorship in Anthropology/the Smith Distinguished Professorship/the distinguished professorship/the professorship
  • John Doe, the Smith Distinguished Professor of Anthropology/the professorship holder
  • MacArthur Fellowship/MacArthur “genius” award or “genius” grant/MacArthur fellow

Class Years

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE
Jane M. Doe ’62; John N. Doe of the Class of 1955 or the Class of ’55

GRADUATE DEGREE
John N. Doe M.B.A. ’60; John Smith Ph.D. ’39

MORE THAN ONE CAL DEGREE
John N. Doe ’55, M.B.A. ’60

NAME WITH SUFFIX
John Doe Jr. ’60

CAL GRAD WITH A NON-CAL M.D.
Phillip M. Levin ’60, M.D.

PUNCTUATION OF MULTIPLES
Classes of the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s will hold a reunion.

PAIRS
See the following examples for noting class years for couples. If using boldface text to emphasize the names, bold “and” within the pairs.

  • John ’56 and Jane ’58 Harrison
  • John Harrison ’56 and his wife, Jane ’58
  • Bob and Ann ’02 Chavez

PARENT YEARS

When listing parents’ years after names in a listing, place their child’s degree year after the name (and the parent’s own class year) when applicable. Separate the two with a comma. Use a period after the letter P.

  • Eric Walker ’69, P. ’10

For several different parent years for one parent, use the P once.

  • Dennis Wong P. ’97, ’01, ’04

For listing names of couples, place parent year(s) after each first name or the first name and middle initial. Use a comma to separate class year and parent year.

  • William ’67, P. ’02 and Maria ’67, P. ’02 Robinson
  • Victor R. M.B.A. ’67, P. ’02 and Camilla B. P. ’02 Jones

For names that include three words in the name, place parent year after full name of both couples’ names. This can get confusing!

  • Nikki Wu McClain P. ’11 and Charlie J. McClain ’69, P. ’11

A short explanation should be included on designed print and digital pieces when appropriate denoting that “P.” refers to those who are Cal parents. This footnote or key should not distract from other design elements.

PRIOR TO 1930
When writing about an alum who graduated prior to 1930, write out the full year to avoid confusion as to the century in which the degree was awarded.

  • Incorrect Distinguished alums include former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren J.D. ’14.
  • Correct Distinguished alums include former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, J.D. 1914.

When an alum’s name and class year stand alone (such as in a list or as a quote attribution) and the year in question is prior to 1930, indicate the full year.

  • “If it is a mistake of the head and not the heart don’t worry about it, that’s the way we learn.” — Earl Warren 1912, J.D. 1914

CAPITALIZATION
Capitalize Class when referring to a specific class.

  • Class of 1984

NOT YET GRADUATED
Include class years for people who have not yet graduated. It is advised that you ask individuals what class year to list. Use CADS to get the graduation year for lists (honor rolls and the like) when asking each member of a group is not feasible.

Courses

SEQUENCE
In a sequence of courses with a single title and course description, the complete number of the sequence must be repeated.

  • Incorrect Chemistry 12A-B-C or Chemistry 12ABC
  • Correct Chemistry 12A-12B-12C

CAPITALIZATION
Capitalize a course’s official designation, but do not italicize. Enclose the description of the course in quotes if it differs from the official designation.

  • Professor Jones teaches Biology 101, “An Introduction to Biology.”

Degrees and Affiliations

CAPITALIZATION
When academic degrees are referred to in general terms such as doctorate, doctoral, bachelor’s, or master’s, they are not capped.

  • He earned a bachelor’s degree in English.

INITIALIZATION
Initialisms for degrees should be as follows with no spaces:

  • A.B., B.A., B.S., C.Mult., C.Sing., D.Eng., Dr.P.H., Ed.D., J.D., J.S.D., LL.M., M.A., M.A.T., M.Arch., M.B.A., M.C.P., M.D., M.Eng., M.F., M.F.A, M.J., M.L.A., M.L.I.S., M.P.H., M.P.P., M.S., M.S.W., O.D., Ph.D.

Licenses and associations do not take periods:

  • CPA, LCSW, AAAS, IEEE, ASLA

According to the Chicago Manual of Style, the trend is moving away from using periods in these abbreviations. Whichever style you choose, be consistent within the document. Berkeley Haas style is to exclude periods in degrees: BA, MBA, PhD, and so forth.

Departments and Disciplines

CAPITALIZATION
Capitalize disciplines only when referring to specific courses or departments.

  • I’m studying biostatistics, although my favorite course is Anthropology 100 in the Department of Anthropology.

In a first reference, use Department of Anthropology. You may use archaeology department or anthropology in subsequent references.

Majors and minors are lowercase (but proper names as subjects are always capitalized).

  • She majored in linguistics and minored in Asian studies.

People and Titles

See also Titles, General Style Preferences.

CHANCELLOR
Refer to our current chancellor in all collateral as Carol T. Christ (including in addresses).

CAPITALIZATION

Capitalize the following titles only when immediately preceding personal names: governor, president, provost, vice chancellor, dean, chair, director, coordinator, professor.

  • The governor agrees with President X, but Professor Y claims that most professors do not.

Capitalize chancellor in all references to the current chancellor and president in all references to UC’s president. Do not capitalize chancellor in reference to former chancellors.

  • The Chancellor awarded $1 million in discretionary funds to student services.
  • As a former chancellor, Smith was also on the committee.

Capitalize full titles before names. Place long titles after names as lowercased appositives.

  • Vice Chancellor John Doe; Jane Doe, professor of chemistry; John Doe, vice chancellor for university development and alumni relations
  • We honored Chancellor Emeritus Smith.

Occupational titles preceding a name are not capitalized.

  • Several people contributed to the report, including attorney James Smith.

Titles following a personal name may be capitalized in event collateral such as invitations, lists, and programs.

See Titles Used in Apposition, General Style Preferences.

Do not use Dr. in academic titles unless the professor prefers to use it in an honor roll or similar listing. Generally, the title Dr. is only used at the beginning of names of those who are medical doctors. Avoid using the abbreviation Prof.

Treatment of Campus Entities

The capitalization guidelines below cover most campus uses.

CAPITALIZATION
Lowercase university when referred to in a general sense as it’s a common noun. Do not capitalize it.

  • The university was founded in 1868.

Capitalize the following words only when they are part of a title. Capitalizing common nouns should not be considered abbreviations — most abbreviations are capitalized (Human Rights Center is known as HRC, for example) — in order to circumvent this basic rule of grammar: Common nouns are lowercase. Proper nouns are capitalized.

  • campus, college, school, department, institute, center, program, office, committee
  • Incorrect: The College relies on vital support from every part of our community.
  • Correct: The College of Chemistry relies on vital support from every part of our community or The college relies on vital support from every part of our community

Subsequent references are always lowercase.

  • The College of Chemistry sets out to create a sustainable foundation of financial stability to enhance the college’s level of excellence.

For correct spelling of campus entities not listed here, visit berkeley.edu.

  • Arts & Humanities
  • The Bancroft Library/the Bancroft
    • Lowercase the in running text.
  • Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive/the Berkeley Art Museum/the Pacific Film Archive/the museum/the archive/BAMPFA
  • Berkeley Center for New Media
  • Berkeley Engineering/College of Engineering/the college
  • Berkeley Law/UC Berkeley School of Law/the school
  • Biological Sciences/Division of Biological Sciences
  • Cal Alumni Association/CAA/the alumni association/the association
  • Cal Athletics/the athletics department/Intercollegiate Athletics
  • Cal Performances
  • Center for (not of) Latin American Studies
  • Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies
  • Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute/CITRIS and the Banatao Institute (second reference)
  • College of Chemistry/the college
  • College of Environmental Design/CED/the college
  • College of Letters & Science/L&S/the college
  • College of Natural Resources/CNR/the college
  • Connie & Kevin Chou Hall
    • Ampersand is part of building’s title.
  • C. V. Starr East Asian Library (note spacing)/the Starr Library/East Asian Library
  • Energy Biosciences Building
  • Genetics and Plant Biology Building
  • Goldman School of Public Policy/the Goldman School/the school
  • Graduate School of Education/the GSE/the school
  • Graduate School of Journalism/J-School/the school
  • Greek Theatre (not Theater)
  • Walter A. Haas School of Business/Haas School of Business/Berkeley Haas/the business school/the school
  • Walter A. Haas, Jr. Pavilion/Haas Pavilion/the pavilion
    • Comma before Jr. was requested by the donor.
  • Hearst Memorial Mining Building
  • Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology/the Hearst Museum/the museum
  • Institute of East Asian Studies
  • Institute of (not for) International Studies
  • International and Area Studies/IAS
  • International House/I-House
  • Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library
  • Koshland Hall
  • Lawrence Hall of Science/the hall
  • University Library (for main library)/the library (when referring to a branch library)
  • Life Sciences Addition/LSA
  • Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences
  • McCone Hall (not Earth Sciences Building)
  • Morrison Library (not the Morrison Reading Room or Morrison Room)
  • Physical Sciences
  • School of Information/I School/the school
  • School of Optometry/Berkeley Optometry/the school
  • School of Social Welfare/Berkeley Social Welfare/the school
  • Social Sciences/the division
  • Stanley Hall
  • Sutardja Dai Hall
  • Tan Kah Kee Hall/Tan Hall/the chemical engineering and chemistry building
  • Tang Center (the building)/University Health Services/UHS (the unit)
  • Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies
  • Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities/the Townsend Center for the Humanities/the Townsend Center/the center
  • UC Berkeley Extension/Berkeley Extension
    • not University Extension or UC Extension
  • UC Botanical Garden/the garden
  • Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute