Last semester I remember walking by countless campus tours, the huddled crowds of eager high schoolers and their skeptical but silent parents, and thinking to myself, “God, they came to visit at the wrong time.” MUNACA clamoured at the gates, masked students marched and occupied, and armored riot police had made at least one campus appearance. To the parents on tour with their innocent youngsters, “chaos” was surely what first came to mind.

But now, a new year beckons. Whether by the therapy of vacation or the simple passage of time, a new word now seems best suited to describe our campus: reconciliation.

Let’s look first at the language being used then and now. In the fall, sign-boards and picket lines were speckled with admonishing phrases predicting the end of academic freedom and access through forceful suppression of speech and a rise in tuition. All of this was valid and concerning. But while surely there are those of you out there waxing nostalgic for a continued gloves-off bout with The Man, the general discourse now has changed.

Take, for example, Heather Monroe-Blum’s email correspondences regarding Dean Jutras’ report on the events of Nov. 10. Collective discussion of both the event and the report are prioritized; such cooperation will lead to, in her words, a “more inclusive and stronger” campus in the long run. Students are persuaded to send in any comments and concerns about the handling of such a delicate post-campus-trauma scenario. And, the first of the recommendations given by Dean Jutras’ report calls for a “forum open to all members of the university community to discuss the meaning and scope of the rights of free expression and peaceful assembly on campus.”

Considering that one of the main concerns of protesters last fall was the lack of voice students have in McGill’s affairs, this language is monumental. The report doesn’t ask for any change in the governance of the university, but then again I for one am more than happy to let administrators be administrators and students be students.

Other signs of reconciliation abound. The McGill Daily has published one commentary piece on how tuition increases will not harm access to higher education, and another commentary on how the fifth floor occupiers created a tense environment because they wore masks. Granted, the Daily is sticking to its old guns in its editorial on the inadequacy of Dean Jutras’ report. But the overall message is clear: it’s time for a less hysterical and more holistic discussion of student-administration relations going forward. Put into three-word clichés, the winter break gave us all a chance to let off steam, cool our jets, and take it easy.

And, if you’ll permit one more, we now see the calm after the storm. This clarity in tone and discourse is not unexpected. The passing of another year inherently implies a fresh start. Looking at McGill as a complex system, we can see that last semester the campus hit a threshold of tension, after which a new equilibrium of discourse was reached.  The civility we now see is akin to the peacefulness after the fight of a squabbling couple or an irate pair of siblings. It’s a shared feeling that further words must be tempered with a renewed understanding of the situation at hand. As our principal wrote on Dec. 19, “the holiday will be a most welcome pause and a chance to regroup after a challenging fall.”