General Acronym Listing by Letter

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M
N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

P
PA	Peer Advisor

PA	Program Assistant
	other notes:	used by the Frontiers Program

PAC	President's Advisory Council
	pronunciation:	P-A-C, not "pack"

PAC	Peer Academic Coaching
	pronunciation:	Pack
	Web address:	http://www.wpi.edu/offices/arc/pac11284.html

PAC	Public Access Computers
	pronunciation:	'pack' or 'pack-Terminals'
	other notes:	the term is used most often by Gordon Library

PAG	President's Administrative Group

PANSAT	Power metallurgy and Navigation Satellite
	pronunciation:	'pan-sat'

PBA	Presidential Board of Appeals
	other notes:	the final appeal available in the campus judicial system

PBE	Rho Beta Epsilon
	other notes:	robotics engineering honor society

PBM	Policy and Benefits Manual

PDE	Pi Delta Epsilon
	Greek letters:	ΠΔΕ
	other notes:	media honor society

PDF	Portable Document Format
	pronunciation:	PDF File
	other notes:	file format used by many offices on campus for form delivery, written *.pdf

PDML	Production and Machine Dynamics Laboratory
	Web address:	http://www.me.wpi.edu/MFE/PMDL/

PDO	Printing and Duplicating Office
	other notes:	uncommon as an acronym

PEDS	Performance Evaluation of Distributed Systems
	pronunciation:	'peds'
	other notes:	CS research group
	Web address:	http://www.cs.wpi.edu/Research/PEDS/

PEG	Parenting Exchange Group
	pronunciation:	'peg'
	other notes:	replaces Parents Of Preschoolers
	Web address:	http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/HR/PEG/

PEL	Permissible Exposure Level
	other notes:	referred to in the CHP
	Web address:	http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/Safety/Laboratory/hygiene.html

PERA	Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics Department
	pronunciation:	Athletics
	other notes:	formerly PE and PEA, academic department
	Web address:	http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/PE/

PFT	Physical Fitness Test
	other notes:	ROTC term

PGD	Phi Gamma Delta
	Greek letters:	Fiji
	pronunciation:	Fiji
	other notes:	Social fraternity. The letters phi, gamma, and delta aren't permitted to be spelt out. (i.e., ΣΑΕ or ΦΣΚ. Use of the letters is restricted to certain places including the chapter house and tombstones.
	Web address:	http://users.wpi.edu/~phigam/

PH	Physics Department
	Web address:	http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/Physics/

PHC	Panhellenic Council
	pronunciation:	'pan-hell'
	other notes:	written PanHel
	Web address:	http://users.wpi.edu/~panhel/

PhD	Doctor of Philosophy
	other notes:	an advanced degree

PI	Principal Investigator
	other notes:	IRB term

PIC	Planning and Implementation Committee
	other notes:	subcommittee of the SPSC

PICO	PIne's message COmposer
	pronunciation:	'pee-co'. less common: 'pie-co" Research shows that although the correct pronunciation based on the acronyms origin would be "Pie-co," the overwhelming majority of users - at WPI and elsewhere - call it "pee-co," including the developers of the program.
	other notes:	written Pico at WPI
	Web address:	http://www.washington.edu/pine/

PIEE	Partnerships Implementing Engineering Education
	Web address:	http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/PIEE/

PILOT	Payment In Lieu Of Taxes
	pronunciation:	'pilot'
	other notes:	Referred to in the Nov. 2, 2004 FAP minutes

PINE	Program for Internet News and Email
	pronunciation:	'pine'
	other notes:	written Pine at WPI
	Web address:	http://www.washington.edu/pine/

PKT	Phi Kappa Theta
	Greek letters:	ΦΚΘ
	pronunciation:	'cap'
	other notes:	social fraternity
	Web address:	http://users.wpi.edu/~pkt/

PLA	Peer Learning Assistant

PLC	Project-based Learning Community
	other notes:	not PBLC

PLTW	Project Lead The Way
	Web address:	http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/K12/Adult/educators.html#pltw

PLU	Phi Lambda Upsilon
	Greek letters:	ΦΛΥ
	other notes:	chemical engineering honor society

PME	Pi Mu Epsilon
	Greek letters:	ΠΜΕ
	other notes:	math honor society

PMP	Professional Master's Program

PMRC	Powder Metallurgy Resource Center
	other notes:	part of BEI, Mooris 'Butch' Boorky PMRC
	Web address:	http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Research/PMRC/

PMVL	Polaroid Machine Vision Laboratory

PO	Payroll Office
	other notes:	uncommon as an acronym
	Web address:	http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/Payroll/

PO	Purchase Order

POC	Professional Officer Course
	other notes:	ROTC term

PoP	Professor of Practice

PPD	Project Presentation Day
	Web address:	http://www.wpi.edu/News/PPD/

PPDA	Participant Public Display of Affection
	other notes:	a Frontiers term

PPE	Policies, Procedures, and Elections
	other notes:	A committee of the Student Government Association
	Web address:	http://sga.wpi.edu

PPE	Personal Protective Equipment

PQP	Pre Qualifying Project
	pronunciation:	'ID Twenty-Fifty'
	other notes:	used interchangeably with ID2050

PRC	Program Review Committee
	other notes:	This committee of the IGSD reviews proposed custom majors from undergraduates.

PRC	Program Review Chair
	other notes:	Member of individual academic departments responsible for reviewing progress of candidates for degrees.

PRL	Pavement Research Laboratory
	other notes:	CEE research lab
	Web address:	http://pavement.wpi.edu/

PRP	Phased Retirement Plan

PS	Phi Sigma
	Greek letters:	ΦΣ
	other notes:	biology honor society

PSK	Phi Sigma Kappa
	Greek letters:	ΦΣΚ
	pronunciation:	PSK
	other notes:	social fraternity
	Web address:	http://users.wpi.edu/~psks/

PSM	Planned Server Maintenance
	other notes:	Good excuse for not attending an event.

PSS	Phi Sigma Sigma
	Greek letters:	ΦΣΣ
	pronunciation:	Phi Sig or Phi Sig Sig
	other notes:	social fraternity for women
	Web address:	http://users.wpi.edu/~pss/

PT	Physical Training
	other notes:	ROTC term

PTO	Parent Teacher Organization
	other notes:	Mass Academy term

PTS	Pi Tau Sigma
	Greek letters:	ΠΤΣ
	other notes:	mechanical engineering honorary society