As fall term comes to a close and finals week looms, it is difficult, and likely unproductive, to take time to reflect. With papers due and exams upon us, to look back is to waste time.

But as my first full calendar year at Binghamton University nears its end, I can’t help but consider the year that it was.

2009. For BU, the final year in a decade of growth and progress will be remembered for scandal and tragedy.

There was controversy; there were deaths. There were more scathing editorials than favorable headlines. There are few positive reports and more ongoing investigations. In a year of national economic crisis, thousands turned to Binghamton — a jewel of public education — for an affordable university with a solid reputation. A reputation that has been seriously damaged.

2009, it wasn’t a very good year.

There was misconduct in both the administration and the student body.

The past calendar year has been an unforgettably forgettable one for the Student Association. Rules were broken, mistakes were made, Eve 6 was the lead act for Spring Fling and, unbelievably, it got worse.

During spring semester, the SA was embroiled in a racial controversy that sparked campus-wide protests when members employed ethnic slurs during an argument. Former SA President Matt Landau, insufferable to the end, briefly considered a campaign for the mayor’s office of the city of Binghamton.

This semester, during a SUNY-wide SA conference hosted in Downtown Binghamton, BU’s representatives were embarrassingly dismissed after not only illegally vouching for an unauthorized representative for increased voting power, but for also drinking while doing it.

Binghamton’s basketball program, though, must be recognized for excellence in rule-breaking. Reeling from the assault by, and subsequent escape of, an international player in 2008, the team managed to make the NCAA basketball tournament in 2009, before it was discovered that the team’s starting lineup had the moral bearing and scholastic imperative of a group of pirates.

With former head coach Kevin Broadus on paid leave after being found in violation of NCAA recruiting practices merely days after an investigation into his recruiting practices was announced, the program has become a punching bag for The New York Times editorial board.

But preventable controversy, though humiliating, is undoubtedly dwarfed by tragedies experienced by both the University and the Binghamton community this year.

In April, the American Civic Association on Front Street was the site of a deadly mass shooting. A lone gunman claimed 13 victims before committing suicide.

The tragedy put our little town in the national spotlight, with footage of posturing police officers and terrified witnesses blanketing the airwaves. The American media machine has since forgotten the massacre. Eight months later, unfortunately, another murder would jog their memory.

Just last week, Professor Richard Antoun, an esteemed and dedicated member of the University faculty, was stabbed to death in Science I. He was senselessly slain by a graduate student, in broad daylight.

At 77, the anthropology professor was an avowed pacifist and had, throughout his career, battled intolerance. As the semester nears its end, his death is a horrific bookend to a year that the University will struggle to forget.

In a few days’ time, campus will empty and exhausted students and teachers will, after a long term, leave the Binghamton of 2009, to return in 2010.

Here’s to hoping it’s a better year.