University Terms

Academic titles

Do not use "Dr." when referring to professors. "Dr." should only refer to a health professional such as a physician or dentist.

Do not use the terms "associate" or "assistant" preceding "professor."

Capitalize endowed professorships and fellowships, even when the title comes after a name. If it follows the name, it is preceded by "the" or "SFU's" to avoid confusion.

Example:

Terry Smith, SFU's Canada Research Chair in Science

Alumnus / Alumni

Alumnus – a neutral term for graduates of any gender
Alumni – a neutral term for multiple graduates of any gender
Alum/alums – avoid using this term

Emeritus/emeriti

Emeritus – a neutral term for professors of any gender who have retired with distinction
Emeriti – a neutral term for multiple professors of any gender who have retired with distinction

Faculty member

“Faculty” may be singular or plural. Use “faculty members” if you don’t like using faculty as a plural noun.

Examples:

• There are 14 faculty members in the department.
• The department has 14 faculty.

Courtesy titles

For professional and academic titles, do not use Prof., Dr., Mr., Mrs. or Ms. to preface a name. Use the first name and last name in first reference and the last name in subsequent references.

Do not use “Dr.” when referring to professors, as not all professors hold PhDs. “Dr.” should only refer to a health professional such as a physician or dentist.

Capitalize endowed professorships and fellowships, even when the title comes after a name. If it follows the name, it is preceded by a "the" or "SFU’s" to avoid confusion.

Use the first and last name to differentiate between two people with the same last name such as married couples and siblings. If someone’s gender is not clear on first reference, use his or her (he or she) in later references to indicate gender.

Example: 

I met John Anderson, professor of criminology, for the first time last month. Anderson is an expert in crime scene analysis.

Donors

Donor Naming Guidelines for SFU

In all communications materials, always refer to donor named entities (including buildings, classrooms, programing, initiatives and other university venues named after people or organizations) by using the full and formal name in the first mention. Once the formal name is established and assuming there is no ambiguity, the informal usage is allowed.

Examples:

• Formal name in first mention: The Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum
• Subsequent / informal usage: The museum or The Gibson
  
  
• Formal name in first mention: The Segal Graduate School of Business
• Subsequent / informal usage: The school
  
  
• Formal name in first mention: The Uggla Family Scholarship
• Subsequent / informal usage: The scholarship

Other

Honorary doctorate, honorary degree – For these two terms, honorary is not spelled 'honourary' as would be expected in Canadian spelling. But, an "honours" degree or a degree with "honours" is correct.

While the prefix "post" usually takes a hyphen, it does not take a hyphen for postdoctoral, postdoctorate, postgraduate. Post-secondary is hyphenated.

Do not hyphenate "grade point average" (GPA) or "cumulative grade point average" (CGPA). When giving a student’s GPA, reference it to the highest available GPA (4.33).

Example:

Dominique Dunne, an engineering science student, earned a grade point average of 3.6 out of a possible 4.33.