I’m writing about academics. I have a tendency to write earth-shattering sentences like, “The faculty at Generic State University frequently belong to Generic Committees.”
Word wants me to write that the “faculty belongs” to committees. That ain’t right, is it? It’s tried to correct me so many times that I’m doubting myself now. Maybe I should just say “faculty members belong”?
Does the whole faculty belong to whatever, or do certain members?
If you’re saying the “faculty belongs”, you mean all the members do.
Saying the “faculty belong” when you mean individuals in a faculty seems wrong. Would you use the same phrasing with herd or band?
“Faculty members frequently belong” would be fine.
Singularizing plural collective nouns is American grammar. Pluralizing them is British grammar.* In other words, software optimized for American English will do what yours did, while software optimized for British English will do what you wanted to do.
*I’m sure it’s more complicated than that, but for the purposes of this post, it’s close enough.
On target. (You should have said “Pluralising them is Brittish grammar,” since it would also use the -ise spelling.)
I have also noted the split-the-difference format, mostly in British usage, that distinguishes between the group as collective entity and differences of opinion within the group: “The committee is agreed…” vs. “The committee are divided…”
+1 to this comparison (from an American perspective), though for the OP’s sentence, you may try deleting the “The” so it just refers to generic faculty.
In British English (The Real English™), the word “faculty” is not really used as a collective noun for teaching staff anyway.
Surely, “faculty belongs” treats the faculty as a unit (singular), while “faculty belong” treats the faculty as many individuals (plural). [Compare “One person belongs” to “Many people belong”]. You seem to be saying the reverse here, which surprises me.
ETA: On reflection, you’re not saying what I thought you were saying. Still, I’ll leave this post up…
It’s one of those things that it only used in the highest levels of American English. Of course an academic institution is going to use it. The rest of us would probably rewrite it as “the faculty members belong…”