Orin at B.U.; punting; Joelle — "he not only fully accepted the…"
he not only fully accepted the stress and resentment, he said he had worked hard and would continue, in his dull quiet unromantic fashion, to work hard to remain open to it, to this resentment and sense of loss and irreplaceability, even after four years, to let everyone who needed to get it out get it out
Context
The usurper's public-relations masterpiece, delivered annually from a bullhorn at Convocation. Tavis stands up before the whole Academy and invites their resentment — announces that he accepts the anger, works hard to "remain open to it," wants "everyone who needed to get it out get it out" for their own psychological health. It's grief-management as governance: by hosting the resentment out loud and framing his own displacement of the founder as a burden he shoulders for everyone's wellness, he converts every possible grievance into further proof of his selflessness. The students respond with throat-slitting mimes, which is the only honest reading available — they can see the machine even as it makes objection impossible.