What “dignity” does the article merit? Using the nickname merely saves space, it does not hurt the victim any more.
What it appears to be doing, is trying to distance the men from the school name Vanderbilt.
I wasn’t actually sure if this was Vanderbilt or not, until I started reading the article. That looks to be the desire.
I don’t really care if they use the name of the school or not, but if they’re going to connect the guys, they should do it formally when reporting something of this nature or importance.