For communications for external audiences, do not use abbreviations or possessive numerals for class year, parent designations or any other Brown affiliations or honors. Instead, include this information in copy as relevant and necessary.

• Anna Barclay, a 1987 graduate of Brown and parent of two current Brown students, chairs the committee. (Not Anna Barclay ’87…)
• Anna Barclay of the Class of 1987 chairs the committee.

(See: “class years”)

For communications destined exclusively and solely for internal campus or alumni audiences, use of abbreviations for class year, parent designations or any other Brown affiliations or honors is acceptable. Use a reverse apostrophe (hit the apostrophe key twice) before the year when referring to class years.

• Lila Blackstone ’16 (Her only degree is a bachelor’s.)
• Robert Santos ’88, ’90 A.M., ’94 Ph.D. (He has three degrees from Brown.)

In fundraising and Family Weekend contexts, refer to the parent of a Brown student or graduate in this manner:

• Ana Tran P’12

If the parent also is a Brown graduate, the parent’s class year precedes the child’s year:

• Ana Tran ’98, P’12

To indicate a parent of more than one Brown student or graduate, include the class years of all children in chronological order, separated by one space:

• Roger Levine P’19 ’21

For use only in relevant contexts where a person’s role as a grandparent relates to the content (example: a profile about a family in a fundraising brochure to parents), refer to grandparents of Brown students in this manner:

• Anthony Ferrara GP’18

In this example, a grandparent is an alumnus and a Brown parent:

• Frank Nelson ’60, P’89, GP’18 ’20