When Boston University President emeritus John Silber told me yesterday that The Daily Free Press has been doing “OK” of late, we might as well have received a Pulitzer. Indeed, the man who built BU, in an informal conversation after yesterday’s inauguration proceedings at Marsh Chapel, told me that the ol’ Free Press has turned a corner: we now distinguish between “who and whom” and “as and like.”

Considering whom it was coming from, it was the greatest compliment I’ve received all semester.

When Silber, a notorious archenemy of the media, offers a student rag underhanded praise, something must be up. And in fact, something is.

There is a different feel on this campus. And maybe it has something to do with that humble, mustachioed Texan who now occupies BU’s ivory tower, President Robert Brown. Whatever it is, BU is in transition, and I’ve had the privilege to oversee the changing campus’s earliest entries into the history books.

It was surreal watching Silber and Brown interact yesterday, if not because of their starkly different attitudes, because of what they symbolize for the university — one, a brilliant but abrasive relic whose fingerprints are on every brick of the campus; the other, a gentle scholar whose role here is still in its infancy.

But for a few minutes yesterday, they were just men sharing a laugh and a handshake, surrounded by fawning onlookers.

That juxtaposition of the old guard versus the new sums up this entire semester. A clash of eras was prevalent across the campus, as faculty members decried Silber-appointed deans, a familiar Student Union made way for a new, albeit embattled, administration, and the entire campus turned its gaze to the new guy, the president.

As we move forward, this transition will pervade everything we do, and it will be more important than ever that the FreeP ask tough questions to figure out in just what direction we’re heading.

I am proud to have overseen a staff that has attacked these stories with vigor and unyielding skepticism. With a tireless editorial board, the sound counsel of my managing editor and an expansive team of writers and reporters, we have unearthed some pretty tough stories.

Next semester, new challenges will inevitably arise that threaten the sense of community that Brown is trying to foster — whether they be an apathetic populace, a faculty in turmoil or an obscene chant at a hockey game.

In these trying times, it is vital that the Freep hold the university’s leaders accountable for their decisions. By highlighting the shortcomings of the various elements of the university, we can provide the community with the information it needs to remedy them.

In that vein, I hope that readers continue to provide us with the valuable feedback that both keeps us on our toes and allows us to make constructive changes. I learned a lot this semester by corresponding with readers, many of who held passionate views about the subject matter of our stories. It was these conversations that made the long nights of work and producing a newspaperworth it.

Four months from now, when we reconvene for another unavoidably tumultuous year, this paper might look different; it might appear in different locations; it might read differently. But I can say with confidence that the groundwork we’ve laid this semester will enable the editorial boards that come after us to dig even deeper and serve our readers better.

Thank you for sticking with us. We look forward to your continued readership in the fall.