[Editors] referring to alumni

[John Hawkinson]

David Chandler <dlc1 at MIT.EDU> wrote on Thu, 19 Mar 2009
at 13:48:46 -0400 in <32012C14-2042-483E-882D-62CDAB3FE56C at mit.edu>:

> This is the style we use in the News Office, and I believe it's also  
> widely used by other publications on campus.
> Example from a story today:
> Terrafugia CEO and co-founder Carl Dietrich '99, SM '03, PhD '07 said...

Quite a mouthful, wouldn't you say? By comparison, The Tech
would simply say "Carl Dietrich '99." Full stylebook
entry is attached.

--jhawk at mit.edu                 News Editor
  John Hawkinson                The Tech                +1 617 797 0250
  http://tech.mit.edu

Years

Sources: Alumni/ae Directory; Student Directory. Years follow the
first reference name of someone who has attended the Institute as an
undegraduate for two or more years, reagardless whether he or she
graduated. There is no comma between last name and year. If a student
dropped out after less than two years, the year should not be appended
but some note should be made of the person's former status as an
undergraduate student.

If someone received an advanced degree from MIT but no bachelor's
degree, the person's name is followed by the abbreviation of the
degree name (SM, MEng, EE, PhD, MCP, MArch, ScD) and the year in which
it was received. If the person has multiple advanced degrees, the most
advanced is used.

Examples:
Joe Tech received bachelors (1983), masters (1984) and PhD (1987)
degrees. He would be Joe Tech '83.
Jane Tech (his sister) received a masters degree in 1986. She would be
Jane Tech SM '86.
Jim Tech (their father) got a masters (1962) and a doctorate (1968).
He is Jim Tech PhD '68.

The name of a current graduate student is followed by a "G": Johnny
Tech G. If a one-time graduate student failed to receive a degree,
then no year is added. That individual's status as a former student,
however, should be noted.

If a person entered the Institute as a member of the Class of 1976,
but did not receive a degree until 1989, that person should remain Bob
Beaver '76, unless his/her year has been formally changed (whatever
that means). Usually, a formal change is noted in the updated
Alumni/ae Directory. This gets to be rather complicated, because the
Student Directory can be misleading -- if one does not graduate on
time, after the senior year, one is still given a "4". In these
cases, bear with the style error, or ask every person who is listed
with a "4" when he/she entered MIT.