This year has brought a lot of change to our school. What we expected to be a year dominated by discussion of the “transition space” ended up being so much more: the year the building was delayed, the year the 1L curriculum was dramatically reformed, the year Bay Street hiring plummeted again, the year Dean Moran moved on to Trinity, and the year former Dean Daniels was awarded an honorary degree. Despite everything, we remained engaged. Our community’s strength is both a result of and a testament to its adaptability, and I’m incredibly proud of any role that Ultra Vires has played in helping us make sense of these changes.
While trying to determine the social norms involved in writing end-of-tenure editorials, I revisited Patrick Hartford’s final editorial from last year. His title, “Our Best Issue Yet,” resonates with me now more than ever before. While I acknowledge that what I’m about to say is incredibly cliché, I’ll say it anyway. Working on Ultra Vires has been so rewarding because, every time a new issue is complete, I really feel that this is the one… again and again, we’re producing our best issue yet.
You are the reason we’re able to keep improving. Thank you to everyone who has written this year. More than ever before, we’ve had a wide variety of contributors who have represented diverse perspectives on a whole host of issues. Thank you to everyone who has read and thoughtfully considered what our contributors and editors have worked hard to put together. You have all been essential in furthering UV’s effectiveness as an outlet for debate and a vehicle for progress.
If it came down to it, I’d pretty much have to thank every individual at or peripherally involved with U of T Law for making this year such a meaningful one, but there are a few people in particular I’d like to awkwardly single out.
Thank you Patrick Hartford—I’m sorry for bothering you every day about everything. You have incredible vision and I’m grateful that you’ve been so willing to share it with me. Thank you Alyssa Howes, our indefatigable layout editor, for your patience and skill. Even at the most stressful of times, working with you has been a pleasure. Thank you David Feldman, for your absolute devotion to the OCI survey and equally impressive commitment to making our covers into Photoshop masterpieces. And to every member of the Editorial Board, feel free to forward the sappy personalized thank-you message you’ll soon receive to your entire contact list. I wish I had space to write everything here and give you the public recognition you each deserve, but there is too much to be said about you amazing people.
Finally, to next year’s Editors in Chief David Gruber and Paloma van Groll, I have every confidence that you will make UV into a smarter, sassier, funnier and more journalistically rigorous paper than the school has ever seen. Go forth and conquer!
