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The apocalypse didn’t show up, but you could hardly say that 2012 was lacking for big events.

From , to , to a convocation speech from a , to celebrating , 2012 may rank as one of AV¾ãÀÖ²¿â€™s most eventful years in recent memory.

It was also one of our busiest years ever on Dal News. Our website logged more than 556,178 visits in 2012 — the most since we’ve been counting — and we published just shy of 500 stories over the 12 months.

Perhaps the biggest Dal story of 2012 was the merger with Nova Scotia Agricultural College, bringing the Faculty of Agriculture and the Truro-based Agricultural Campus into the Dal community. We were there the whole way: ; touring the campus during i; watching the Dal Tiger ; ; interviewing ; and highlighting some of the events and research happening in Truro, such as and the .

Back in Halifax, labour issues loomed over the winter term; you’ll note that no less than three of our top 10 most-read stories were related to updates in negotiations between the Board and the NSGEU and the DFA. But those weren’t the only labour concerns that affected our community: led many students, staff and faculty to Dal News for information on transit options available to them. (Coincidentally, tentative agreements between Dal’s Board and the DFA, as well as Metro Transit and its drivers, were reached on the same day, with the aid of the same government conciliator.)

It was a big year for Dal’s Faculty of Dentistry, which and was the first Canadian institution to be awarded the prestigious . We . On Studley Campus, AV¾ãÀÖ²¿â€™s business school entered a new era with the name of its greatest ambassador, . And Dal awarded honorary degrees to a number of outstanding leaders, and our convocation ceremonies featured inspiring speeches from the likes of and .

Summers tend to be pretty quiet on campus, but that wasn’t the case on Dal News. We profiled our Olympians, including students and , that latter of whom won the bronze medal in the 200m kayak sprints. Then in August, we covered to tour Dal’s research facilities and .

Research was, as always, a big story for us, and we covered a wide range of stories: from Popular Science choosing the Dal-developed lobster Bait Savour as , to exciting new investment’s in , Dal’s , to compelling Dal research into , , , , and more.

And we strove to tell as many great stories from our community as we could. These included (among many others) Facilities Management staff ; Dal’s new for students; award winners like like or for their service to students; bringing creative art to our community at the ; a heartwarming story about Terry Michalopoulos; Dal once again being named one of ; and celebrating of Dal’s Environment, Sustainability and Society program.

Oh yeah, and . You might have heard about that one.

Here’s our top 10 most-read stories of 2012:

1. (Feb. 2) – 12,282 views
2. (Nov. 8) – 7,512 views
3. (Dec. 5) – 5,672 views
4. AV¾ãÀÖ²¿ Olympians viewing guide (July 25) – 5,639 views
5. (Feb. 22) – 5,077 views
6. Binge drinking – as contagious as the common cold? (Jan. 9) – 4,924 views
7. (Nov. 16) – 4,362 views
8. (Mar. 11) – 4,126 views
9. (Aug. 10) – 3,856 views
10. DFA serves strike notice for March 12; government announces solvency relief (Mar. 8) – 3,580 views