The switch from eLion to LionPATH will be finalized this week. eLion.psu.edu is something we will never type into our web browsers again. So it goes.

I can’t lie, this transition is taking an emotional and spiritual toll on me. It’s the end of an era marked by a mediocre student portal and the start of an era plagued by a mind-boggingly horrible one.

eLion, you were an unsung hero. You were like the toilet paper of websites — I didn’t appreciate you until you were gone. One day, I’ll sit in a rocking chair and tell my grandchildren stories of simpler times when I didn’t have to press five million buttons to enroll in a class or navigate a website reminiscent of my middle school MySpace page.

You won’t be forgotten. You always got the job done and you never accidentally admitted too many freshmen or rescheduled classes with short notice at inconvenient times. You weren’t the best when accessed on a mobile phone, but no one’s perfect and you were better than this monstrosity.

I’ve created a tribute so that you may live on forever through the hearts and minds of Penn Staters everywhere. Goodnight, sweet prince — but this isn’t goodbye.