ALUMNI?
Among all the things in state government we could (and do) point out and complain about, this might seem a bit trivial.
But why, at an institution of higher learning, would someone attach this license plate frame to his vehicle when he is the only occupant?
“Alumni” necessarily implies multiple occupants, all of whom are proud graduates. The proper term should be “alumnus,” which is the singular form.
And lest you think I’m picking on LSU, be assured that other schools are equally guilty. Louisiana Tech, ULL, ULM, Southern, Nicholls State, Grambling, McNeese, Southeastern….all of ’em sell these frames in their gift shops.
So do Alabama, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Auburn, Arkansas, Texas, Texas A&M, Georgia and most likely every other college and university in America—probably even the Ivy League schools.
Speaks wonders for higher education, does it not?
Oh well, just something I’ve wanted to get off my chest for quite a while.
You’re an alumnus if you are one male; an alumna if one female. And what about the trans community?
No wonder the marketeers went with the most simple, if incorrect, version: alumni. Latin is dead, and latinate words are following. Sadly.
Tom – technically you’re right, but I believe the intent here is for the driver to identify as being a member of the “alumni” GROUP. Gotta give these colleges SOME credit. Remember, they are the same folks who gave us the “South-EASTERN Conference” and the (old) “South-WEST Conference” – THAT I never could figure out.
Alumna, alumnae, alumni, alumnus
Alumni is a plural noun referring either to a group male graduates or to a group of both male and female graduates. The singular alumnus refers to one male graduate, alumna refers to one female graduate, and the plural alumnae refers to a group of female graduates. These Latin loanwords preserve their original plural forms, and incorrect use of the words abounds because many speakers of English are understandably unfamiliar with the genders and plurals of Latin nouns.
http://grammarist.com/usage/alumna-alumnae-alumni-alumnus/
THE TEN MOST CORRUPT STATES
http://fortune.com/2014/06/10/most-corrupt-states-in-america/
1. Mississippi
2. Louisiana
Looks like Louisiana just might make #1 before long.
It might be a small point, but it points, as such things usually do, to a more troubling, larger problem with our universities. I’m sure a nagging feeling that it did was what prompted you posting it. The people that know all about Latin and other subjects no longer have much say in running the universities. They have been taken over by a bureaucratic class that has no interest in knowledge or learning. All they care about is increasing their own salary to obscene levels. Just look at the website of the LSU Faculty Senate to see how disgusted most profs are with the corrupt gang of ignoramuses that runs LSU. One of the items posted there is a recent report on a survey taken of profs: even after many have left since 2008, three-quarters of the survivors are actively looking for a position out of state; nearly as many would accept such a position at a lower salary than they get here just to get away from the mismanagement of Louisiana higher ed; and about two-thirds recommend that no one accept a job as a prof in this state. As the national academic job market, which has been incredibly tight over the past decade, improves further, those profs will leave and LSU. Then even the LSU on the license plate won’t be spelled right … and few will notice.
I’m proud to say my mom graduated high school from McGhee in N.O., spent a year in “finishing school” after high school, graduated Newcomb with a degree in “social work” because ” that’s what women went into”, and then majored in Latin in graduate school before getting married. She taught me to value humility above all else. By genetics and osmosis I have an insatiable intellectual curiosity, being an attorney is just my day job. I now have 3 high school children to whom I’ve hopefully passed on some of her Grace. There is hope LA.
The Latin program at LSU, along with several other language programs including Cajun French, was eliminated around 2010.
The dean at that time, Gaines Foster, believed it was more important to expand his large, highly paid management group than to retain a few low paid profs and instructors who ran the degree programs in such languages and literatures as Latin, German, Russian, Swahili, and Italian. That kind of ignorant “leadership” is why LSU has become such an irrelevant university.
I want to learn Russian. Thanks for Latin class love always ron thompson
Lots of luck, Ron. You will also have to learn a whole new alphabet 🙂
Maybe Trump can teach him.