It is a little-known fact that the bathrooms in the Storke Publications Building are open 24 hours a day. As such, the war-weary walls have been subjected to years of scratched-in or sharpied-on graffiti, marks of various wayward individuals passing in and out through the nights. Some are illegible, most are incoherent, all are permanent.

My thoughts turn to these assorted imprints as I put the paper to bed one final time for Volume 230. I wonder: what is the mark The Daily has left on the Stanford community these past five months? Is it an important source of campus dialogue and debate, or just a temporary fix for your crossword or Sudoku addiction?

My hope is the former. We provided in-depth coverage of the various trials and travails of The Band; chronicled the initial outrage, then gradual acceptance of the Bike Ban; and published the most accurate and up-to-date print results of the 2006 Election in the Bay Area. Sports kept you posted on the ups and downs of the football team, and Intermission continued to rock. More than anything, the outpouring of response to editorials and columns as letters to the editor and online comments shows how much The Daily really can make an impact on campus discussion.

That’s not to say we always got everything right. As student journalists, we had to master the art of fair, accurate and ethical reporting while balancing our course load and social lives. Reporters misquoted sources, copy editors missed typos and senior editors didn’t return phone calls. I made a critical lapse in judgment in allowing the squash story to run despite initial misgivings, but acted as quickly and decisively as I could to remedy the situation.

But we are tirelessly striving to improve our product. I am fully confident that the Daily will continue to improve next volume under the reins of my successor, wunderkind James Hohmann. We’re holding seminars to improve our writing and reporting, and have been working behind the scenes to continually improve the Daily’s Web site. A number of exciting changes will debut in the next few months, so be sure to check back often, if not daily. With more and more newspapers turning to the Web to net readers, The Daily is innovating to stay ahead of the tide. It’s a time of uncertainty for print journalism, but also one of excitement and creativity. No one is sure what the future may hold.

I thank my tremendously hard-working, loyal and entertaining staffers for their tirelessness efforts and patience throughout the volume. I could not have picked a better group of individuals to stay up to the wee hours of the night writing, editing and eating Treehouse Nachos with.

I thank my friends for understanding where my true home-away-from-home was; my fellow housemates in Robinson most likely have no idea I even live there. They came to visit me in the office knowing I probably wouldn’t see them anywhere else, and put up with me when I was ever-so-slightly testy following another 4 a.m. night.

Last, but certainly not least, I thank you the reader. You sent in story tips, commented on the Web site, kept us honest and constantly pushed us to get better. Seeing you read The Daily during lunch and discussing it in classrooms made the late nights more than worth it. Keep the calls, emails and letters coming. After all, they’re much easier to read than the Storke bathroom wall.