Institute Terms and Units

Common Institute Terms

Advisor: not adviser (Institute preference, as opposed to AP Style).

Alumni: the plural reference for a group of both male and female graduates.

The term alum (a double sulfate of ammonium or a univalent metal, sodium or potassium, and a trivalent metal, aluminum, iron, or chromium) should NEVER be used as a substitute for alumnus. Likewise, alums should NEVER be used for the plural form.

BuzzCard: one word with a capital C.

Coursework: one word in all cases.

EcoCommons: one word; no hyphen.

Emeritus: retiree retaining the rank of the last office held. Emeritus members should be used as the plural form. When referring specifically to a female emeritus, it is appropriate to use the word emerita. Only uppercase the term professor emeritus when it precedes the individual’s name.

First-year student: use this term instead of freshman. Not only is first-year more inclusive, but it is representative of the nomenclature the students themselves use in referring to their stage at Tech. Likewise, upperclassman/men is no longer used.

Gameday: one word in all cases.

Interdisciplinary Research Institutes (IRIs): uppercase when spelling out on first reference.

LGBTQIA Resource Center: supports the Institute's commitment to inclusive excellence by engaging the campus community in education, advocacy, and outreach for people of all genders and sexual identities.The initialism LGBTQIA should only be used when referring specifically to this center. For all other references to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender; or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning and/or queer, follow AP's recommendation of LGBT or LGBTQ.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): never massively.

Master Plan: Uppercase only when referring to the plan specific to Georgia Tech (and the first reference should be Campus Master Plan).

Ramblin’ Wreck: The only exception to this spelling is those instances referring to the Ramblin’ Reck Club.

Regular Decision/Early Action: Uppercase these references to admission deadlines.

Serve-Learn-Sustain: Hyphens are now used as separators instead of bullets.

Georgia Tech Units

Georgia Tech campuses are denoted with a hyphen and the location.

• Georgia Tech-Savannah offers a coastal campus for environmental engineers to study.
• Georgia Tech-Lorraine was founded in 1990.
• Georgia Tech-Shenzhen has been offering the M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering since Fall 2014.

The names of Georgia Tech units are uppercase (except for articles and prepositions) when the formal name of the unit is used. When the elements of a unit name are used to refer to a field of study, a professional discipline, or something other than the unit name itself, the words should be lowercase.

• The Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering is Georgia Tech’s oldest academic unit.
• She has decided to study mechanical engineering.
• The Office of Human Resources completed a salary study last summer.
• He needed more experience in the human resources field.