The citizens of a *populus* are indeed the *cives*, so yes, calling them *populi* is not correct. I don't quite get it though. They're just students again, *discipuli*. What makes them a *populus*?

> Open Loop pioneer Phil Pizzo once noted, “Where we once had an association of alumni looking fondly back at Stanford as just one time in their lives, we now have a populi of 215,000 ongoing students who know that Stanford is there—and theirs—throughout a lifetime.

Does this mean that 215,000 alumni have continued engagement with the university? It's unclear, but that's the sense I get.

In this case, what about a word for 'returners'? We could do the perfect participle of either of the two deponent verbs for 'return', which yields [*reversi*](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0060%3Aentry%3Drevertor) or [*regressi*](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dregredior). You even have Latin phrases like [*regressus domum*](https://latin.packhum.org/search?q=regressus+domum) or [*reversus domum*](https://latin.packhum.org/search?q=reversus+domum) meaning 'having returned home,' which I think Stanford is trying to get at.