“This mass of third rate product from Sun editors and ‘Senior Writers’ is most discouraging. I shudder at what your junior writers produce and will not even read any of their writing for fear of nausea or worse,” one dedicated reader wrote during my tenure as associate editor of this paper.

For over a year, all letters to the editor arrived in my mailbox, greeting me each groggy morning after another late night at The Sun, with rants no less passionate than that one above. You see, my job required that I select the letters to the editor for publication.

Dear Cornell,

Well, everything started with a letter, so it is only fitting that I end with one.

I was eight years old when I first decided I wanted to go to Cornell. A visit with my family to the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles ignited in me a desire to be a hotelier. My third grade self, thinking he had found his life’s passion, sought out every opportunity to pursue it. I collected piles of miniature shampoo bottles and little soap bars at every hotel I visited.

I have been given a lot of advice during my tenure at The Sun — oxford commas are sacrilegious, prepositional phrases ought not to be separated in headlines and never head to The Sun without a cup of coffee. After being elected editor in chief, however, one nugget really stuck: Beware of that “what the fuck?” moment that hits you on your first night in the big office at 139 W. State St.

From the looks of it, you’d think the devil was invited to speak at the University of Notre Dame’s graduation commencement ceremony. Then again, maybe some people believe he is, though I bet even Rush Limbaugh would find this a bit extreme. For commencement and graduation, most universities invite a distinguished individual to address the graduating seniors in order to provide them with words of wisdom and advice for the future. Who better for the task than the President of the United States? I am therefore bewildered that President Obama’s scheduled speech has been met with such defiance and outcry.

Though the snow piled high on Saturday afternoon, blanketing the campus in white, 859 students inside Barton Hall bled Carnelian red as they walked across the stage during the Recognition Ceremony for January Graduates. Friends and family cheered them on as the students — many of whom finished their degrees early, late or from graduate school — received recognition for their milestones.

Of the graduates, 40 percent were earning graduate degrees and 19 percent of students came from outside the United States. All undergraduate and graduate schools were represented at the ceremony, with each school’s graduates wearing different colored tassels.

“Let us take time out so that we are able to better the lives of others.” This was the final piece of advice that Dr. Maya Angelou, world-renown poet and author, gave to Cornell’s graduating Class of 2008 during her Convocation address on May 24 in Schoellkopf Stadium.

Cornell’s 140th Commencement took place this weekend as graduating seniors received their diplomas and left the home they have come to know during the past four years.

Senior Class President Vince Hartman ’08 instructed his fellow classmates to keep strong ties with Cornell.