For the wording on a diploma I’m helping design. Should it be
The faculty and staff of the University of XXX does hereby recognize…
The faculty and staff of the University of XXX do hereby recognize…
And of course I misspelled “grammar” in the title. At least it wasn’t a poll on spelling.
How about:
The faculty and staff of the University of XXX hereby recognize . . .
Problem solved.
“facility and staff” = plural. “does” goes with singular, “do” goes with plural.
For the record, “facility” and “staff” are actually each plural on their own, so it would be
The faculty of the University of XXX do hereby recognize…
The staff of the University of XXX do hereby recognize…
Faculty and staff are singular. Both refer to a a single group of people.
Faculty and staff are two groups. Plural.
Yes, I was thinking of each one individually, like “the staff is…” rather than “the staff are…”
I’ll meet you in the middle - without further clarifying words around them, the terms “faculty” and “staff” can operate as either singular or plural, with an accompanying change in meaning depending on how you use them! And further I’d say that “faculty” is closer to being a singular than ‘staff’ is. Consider the following sentences:
1 The faculty does not condone arriving late.
2 The faculty do not condone arriving late.
3 The staff does not condone arriving late.
4 The staff do not condone arriving late.
The singular statements sound like the faculty and staff have released a declaration of intent as an organizational body. The plural sentences sound like it’s describing the individual proclivities of individual members of the groups. And sentence 3 sounds a bit uncomfortable to me because it’s pretty unusual to me to think of the staff operating as a unit.
At a university, “faculty and staff” is usually treated as singular. It’s a term for a single entity. I grew up in and around a university. My parents were both professors.
With collective nouns, there’s a difference between British and American usage. British English tends to be more flexible, and often treats them as plural, depending on the desired emphasis. American English tends to be stricter about treating them as singular.
Yes–here is some actual data supporting this (for faculty), from both academic and popular publications.
Got a cite? A quick google seems to be bringing up more hits for “are” than “is.”
I thing you treat faculty and staff each as a singular group, then to make sure it sounds correct substitute another noun…
Bill does have a car
Bill and Jane do have a car
John and Jane Doe have a car.
They do?
In the case of something like “The faculty have excellent pension plans,” you would absolutely treat it as plural.
This is the answer. There’s no right way to add it because the “Do/Does” is unnecessary.
No, it just moves the problem over one step, so that it becomes “recognize” or “recognizes.”
That said, since “recognize” sounds correct, that is another way of realizing the subject is plural, and thus the correct form of “to do” is “do.”
Yes. It’s not “problem solved,” but just sweeping the issue under the carpet–evading the real question.
That something “sounds correct” to one person doesn’t mean that it is the only correct form. (And it’s not to do (infinitive), but rather emphatic do.)
They’re both right. One or the other is “more standard” in different parts of the world, though.