McGill University

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McGill University
Motto:	Grandescunt Aucta Labore
Motto in English:	By hard work, all things increase and grow.[1]
Established:	1821
Type:	Public university
Endowment:	$973.6 million[2][3]
Chancellor:	Richard Pound
Principal:	Heather Munroe-Blum
Faculty:	6,061[4]
Staff:	9,345[4]
Undergraduates:	23,758[5]
Postgraduates:	8,756[5]
Location:	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Campus:	Urban Downtown: 32 ha (80 acres) Macdonald Campus: 6.5 km² (1,600 acres)
Colours:	Red and White
Mascot:	Marty the Martlet
Athletics:	49 varsity teams Redmen (men) Martlets (women) CIS, QSSF
Affiliations:	AAU, G13, Universitas 21, ATS, CUSID, UArctic, UACC
Website:	www.mcgill.ca

McGill University is a major^[6] public research-intensive university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.^[7][8] One of the oldest universities in Canada,^[9] McGill was founded in 1821 from a bequest by James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant. Chartered during the British colonial era 46 years before Canadian Confederation, McGill was the first non-denominational university in the British Empire.

Its main campus is set upon 32 hectares (80 acres) at the foot of Mount Royal in Montreal's downtown. A second campus—Macdonald Campus—is situated on 6.5 square kilometres (1,600 acres) of fields and forested land in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, 30 kilometres west of the downtown campus. McGill's Redpath Museum, commissioned in 1880 and opened in 1882, is the oldest building built specifically as a museum in North America.^[10] Its natural history collections boast material compiled by the same individuals who founded the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum and the Smithsonian.

McGill has 21 faculties and professional schools, offering degrees and diplomas in over 300 fields of study, including medicine. Its language of instruction is English, and it has been co-educational since the late 1800s.^[11] The university maintains numerous research stations worldwide, including those in Schefferville, Quebec, Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut and Holetown, Barbados.^[12][13]

Highly regarded internationally,^[14][15][16] the school has long ranked among the world's top universities.^[17][18] In the most recent THES - QS World University Rankings, McGill was ranked the best public university in North America, and 12th best university in the world.^[19][20] In Canada, McGill has produced more Rhodes Scholars than any other school, and is the top-ranked Medical Doctoral^[21] university, ranking first for the third consecutive year in Maclean's annual University Rankings issue.^[22][23]

Alumni from McGill have been recognized in the arts and sciences, business, politics, and sports. Notably, alumni include Nobel laureates, Canadian prime ministers, and Olympic medalists.

[edit] History

[edit] Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning

The Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning (R.I.A.L.), McGill's corporate identity, was created in 1801 by an Act of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, entitled "Establishment of Free Schools and the advancement of Learning in this Province."^[24] The institution's initial purpose was to administer the provision of elementary education in Lower Canada(now largely comprising modern-day Quebec). However, the R.I.A.L. spent most of its early years trying to get funds from the government to enable it to establish and operate these schools, which were primarily for the Protestant English-speaking inhabitants of Lower Canada. The R.I.A.L. was the first institution in Canada to receive royal patronage.^[25]

James McGill, the original benefactor of McGill University.

Between 1811 and 1813,^[26] James McGill, a Scottish immigrant and successful English and French-speaking merchant, drew up a will leaving a 19 hectare (46 acre) tract of land—his estate, which he called Burnside^[27][28]—in what was then rural land. In addition, he bequeathed the sum of 10,000 pounds to the R.I.A.L.^[29]

Page 1 of the 1821 Royal Charter for the establishment of "McGill College."

His will specified that, if a college was not established within 10 years of his death, the estate and the money would revert to the heirs of his wife, Charlotte Desrivieres. As an added condition, the new institution would be required to bear his name.^[30]

As a condition of the bequest, the land and funds would have to be used for the establishment of a "University or College, for the purposes of Education and the Advancement of Learning in the said Province."^[24] When he died in December 1813, this task became the responsibility of the R.I.A.L.

On March 31, 1821, after protracted legal battles with the Desrivieres family, McGill College received a Royal Charter from King George IV. The Charter provided that the College should be deemed and taken as a University, with the power of conferring degrees.^[31] In fact, due to the lawsuits—which did not finally end until 1835—and because the government had not yet funded the college, lack of money had had forced classes to not be held until 1829, when McGill College was officially inaugurated. That same year, the Montreal Medical Institution became the college's Faculty of Medicine and its first academic unit.

Since 1832, McGill's Faculty of Medicine been recognized as the first medical faculty in Canada,^[32][33] granting its first degree, a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery, in 1833.^[29] The Faculty of Medicine remained the school's only functioning faculty until 1843 when the Faculty of Arts commenced teaching in the newly constructed Arts Building and East Wing (Dawson Hall).^[34]

[edit] Legacy

The formation of the R.I.A.L. at the turn of the 18th century coincided with France's departure from Canada. It was during this time of Protestant and Anglican influx that non-denominational schooling proved most necessary for Canada's later growth as a nation. Though French-Catholic settlers made up the majority of Canada's population, the formation of two new Royal Grammar Schools in 1816 by the R.I.A.L.^[35] acted as turning points for Canada in two particular ways. First, the schools "...were created by legislation, the District Public Schools Act of 1807, and they showed the government's willingness to support the costs of education and even the salary of a schoolmaster. Second, the law involved the state in education, an important first step in the creation of nondenominational schools."^[35] As mentioned, these schools were lost in the mid-1800's, closing in 1846^[35] and taking with them the foundation for privatized education in Canada,^[36] as, at the time, "Canadians thought the schools too elite and too close to the class-conscious schools of England such as Eton."^[35] This has influenced education in Canada to this day.

In the mid-1800's, the R.I.A.L. also lost control of the other 82 grammar schools it had administered (a total of 84).^[37] At that point, its sole purpose was to administer the McGill bequests on behalf of the college. Despite the loss, McGill College continued to grow, now having the sole aim of providing post-secondary education. The R.I.A.L. continues to exist and is the "legal person" that runs the university and its various constituent bodies, including the former Macdonald College (now Macdonald Campus), Royal Victoria College (the former women's college turned residence) and the Montreal Neurological Institute. Since the revised Royal Charter of 1852, The Trustees of the R.I.A.L. comprise the Board of Governors of McGill University.^[38]

[edit] Early years

The Arts Building, built in 1839 and designed by John Ostell, is the oldest existing building on campus.

The university's first classes were held in 1829 at Burnside Place, James McGill's country home,^[29][39] until the 1840s; when the school began construction on its first buildings, which were the central and east wings of the Arts Building.^[40] However, the rest of the campus was essentially a pasture for cows, not dissimilar to the few other Canadian universities and early American colleges of the age.^[41] Sir John William Dawson, McGill's fifth principal from 1855 to 1893, is often credited with transforming the school into a modern university.^[42] He recruited the aid of Montreal's wealthiest citizens, many of whom donated the property and funding needed to construct the campus buildings. Their names adorn many of the campus's prominent buildings including the Redpath Museum (1880), Macdonald Physics Building (1893), the Redpath Library (1893), the Macdonald Chemistry Building (1896), the Macdonald Engineering Building (1907), and the Strathcona Medical Building (1907 - now the Strathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building). This expansion of the campus continued to 1920. In 1885, the university's Board of Governors formally adopted the use of the name McGill University.

The coat of arms of the University of Victoria - "a silver field with a charge of three red martlet birds, derived from the arms of McGill University."^[43]

Women's education at McGill began in 1884 when Donald Smith, also known as Lord Strathcona, began funding separate lectures for women, given by university staff members. The first degrees granted to women at McGill were conferred in 1888.^[44] Later, in 1899, the Royal Victoria College (RVC) opened as a residential college for women at McGill. Until the 1970s, all female undergraduate students, known as "Donaldas," were considered to be members of RVC.^[45] Today, the College is an all-women's dormitory forming part of the university's residence system.

In 1905, the university acquired a second campus when Sir William C. Macdonald, one of the university's major benefactors, endowed a college in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, 32 kilometres west of Montreal. Macdonald College, now known as the Macdonald Campus, opened to students in 1907, originally offering programs in agriculture, household science, and teaching.

McGill established the first post-secondary institutions in British Columbia, to provide degree programs to the growing cities of Vancouver and Victoria. It created Victoria College in 1903, a two-year college offering first and second-year McGill courses in arts and science, which was the predecessor institution to the modern University of Victoria. The province's first university was incorporated in Vancouver in 1908 as the McGill University College of British Columbia. The private institution granted McGill degrees until it became the independent University of British Columbia in 1915.^[46]

[edit] McGill français movement

The provincial flag of Quebec.

The 1960s represented an era of large nationalist and labour mobilizations in Quebec. At the time, English was seen as the privileged language of commerce, and McGill, with francophones comprising only three percent of the student population, was seen by some as a bastion of anglophone privilege in a predominantly French-speaking city.^[47][48] In addition, there was only one French-language university in Montreal at the time: the Université de Montréal. McGill was largely out of reach to the 10,000 francophone graduates of the newly-created CEGEP system who had nowhere else to go, locally, to continue their studies, and almost no other French-speaking university to go to in Canada.

Legend :
     native language      administrative language      cultural language

▪ Francophone minorities

The McGill français movement began in 1969, clamouring for a new McGill that would be francophone, pro-nationalist, and pro-worker.^[49] The movement was led by Stanley Gray, a political science professor from Ontario. It was argued that, since McGill received the lion's share of government funding, paid by a taxpayer base that was largely francophone, the university should equally be accessible to that segment of the population.^[50][51] Gray led a demonstration of 10,000 trade unionists, leftist activists, CEGEP students, and even some McGill students, at the university's Roddick Gates on March 28, 1969, with protesters shouting McGill français, McGill aux Québécois, and McGill aux travailleurs (McGill for workers). However, the majority of students and faculty opposed such a position, and many of the protesters were arrested.^[52][53] The McGill français movement is the second-largest protest in the history of Montreal.^[54]

McGill never became a francophone or officially bilingual university. However, francophones now make up approximately 18 percent of the student body, a goal set by the administration in the wake of the movement.^[55]

Today, McGill is one of only three English-language universities in Quebec (the others being Concordia University, also in Montreal, and Bishop's University in Lennoxville); as such, fluency in French is not a requirement to attend. The Faculty of Law does, however, require all students to be "passively bilingual," meaning that all students must be able to read and understand spoken French - or English if the student is Francophone - since English or French may be used at any time in a course. Since 1964, students in all faculties have been able to write exams and papers in either English or French, provided that the objective of the class is not to learn a particular language.^[56]

[edit] Academics

[edit] Profile

The Macdonald-Harrington Building, home to the schools of Architecture and Urban Planning.

McGill's student population includes, both full-time and part-time, 23,758 undergraduate and 8,756 graduate students (including 490 postdoctorals and 943 residents and fellows) in over 340 academic programs in eleven faculties (as of 2007-2008).^[5][57] Of the three Canadian universities with the largest endowments--the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia and McGill University, respectively--McGill has the smallest undergraduate class, well below 25,000 students in total.^[5] Comparatively, at their downtown campuses (St. George and Vancouver) alone, the University of Toronto has over 50,000 undergraduates,^[58] and UBC, over 35,000.^[59] McGill students have won 128 Rhodes Scholarships, more than any other Canadian university.^[60]

688 Sherbrooke Street West, a high-rise office building, is situated directly across from the main campus. It houses many of the university's continuing education and language classes.

The university has the largest number of international students of any Canadian university,^[61] comprising nearly 20% of the student body. Its students represent a diverse geographic and linguistic background. Of the entire student population, 57.3% are from Quebec, while 23.7% come from the rest of Canada, and 19.0% are international, hailing from about 160 different countries.^[62] As their mother tongue, 52.8% of all McGill students speak English, while 18.1% speak French, and 29.1% speak a language other than English or French.^[63]

The plurality of McGill's international students are from the United States, making up 37% of all international students and 49% of all undergraduate international students.^[64] A growing number of American students are attending McGill, with such students representing 9.7% of all undergraduates and 6.9% of all students at the university.^[64] Many are attracted to the culture and dynamism of Montreal, the university's reputation, and the relatively low tuition in comparison to many top public and private universities in the United States.^[65] However, this trend is being repeated at many other Canadian universities, particularly those close to the Canada - U.S. border. In turn, many Canadian universities, including McGill, are stepping up their recruitment efforts at U.S. high schools.^[66]

McGill offers over 250 doctoral and master’s graduate degree programs. McGill Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Office^[67](GPSO) oversees the admission and registration of graduate students (both master's and PhD), and administers graduate fellowships, postdoctoral affairs, the graduation process (including the examination of theses) and, along with other units, conducts regular program reviews in all disciplines.

Nearly 30% of all students are enrolled in the Faculty of Arts, McGill's largest academic unit. Of the other larger faculties, the Faculty of Science enrolls 14%, the Centre for Continuing Education enrolls 13%, the Faculty of Medicine enrolls 12%, the Faculty of Engineering and the Desautels Faculty of Management enroll 10% each. The remainder of all students are enrolled in McGill's smaller schools, including the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Law, Schulich School of Music, and the Faculty of Religious Studies.

McGill also maintains an expertise in the areas of language instruction and linguistics, having language and literature courses spanning more than 30 different languages.^[68]

Despite strong increases in university enrolment across North America,^[69] McGill has upheld a relatively low^[70] and appealing^[71] student-faculty ratio of 16:1.^[72]

[edit] Research

In 2006^[73], McGill's Macdonald Campus, a sweeping area for environmental research, was featured for its 100th anniversary on a Canada Post stamp.

McGill is ranked third in Canada in research-intensity and fourth in total-research funding,^[74] and is recognized as one of the top research universities in Canada and was named "Research University of the Year" by Research Infosource in its 2003 and 2005 ranking of Canada's Top 50 Research Universities.^[75][76] Researchers and scientists at the university are affiliated with nearly 100 research centres and networks. Annually, around 100 inventions take place at McGill.^[77]

McGill and the University Toronto are the only Canadian institutions that are members of the AAU.

There are nearly 1,600 tenured or tenure-track professors, plus another 4,300 adjunct and visiting professors teaching at the university.^[4] McGill ranks in the top five universities in terms of research dollars per full-time faculty member and number of refereed publications per full-time faculty member. According to a study by Research Infosource, research funding represents approximately $259,100 per faculty member, the fourth highest in the country.^[74] Overall, in 2007, Research Infosource ranked McGill the second-best research university in the country, after the University of Toronto.^[76] McGill also has one of the most per faculty research dollars nationwide from federal and provincial sources of funding (including the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council).

Since 1926, McGill has been a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization of research-intensive universities in North America. McGill is also a founding member of Universitas 21, an international association of research-driven universities. In addition, McGill is a member of the G13, a group of prominent research universities within Canada.

McGill and the University of British Columbia are the only Canadian institutions that are members of Universitas 21.

According to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, "Researchers at McGill are affiliated with about 75 major research centres and networks, and are engaged in an extensive array of research partnerships with other universities, government and industry in Quebec and Canada, throughout North America and in dozens of other countries."^[78]

McGill is perhaps best recognized for its research and discoveries in the health sciences. William Osler, Wilder Penfield, Donald Hebb, Brenda Milner, and others made significant discoveries in medicine, neuroscience and psychology while at McGill. The invention of the world's first artificial cell was made by an undergraduate student at the university. As chair of physics at McGill, nuclear physicist Ernest Rutherford performed the experiment that led to the discovery of the alpha particle and its function in radioactive decay, which won him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908. Similarly, William Chalmers, invented Plexiglas while a graduate student at McGill.^[79] In computing, MUSIC/SP, a piece of software for mainframes once popular among universities and colleges around the world at its time, was developed at McGill. A team also contributed to the development of Archie, one of the pre-WWW search engines. A 3270 terminal emulator developed at McGill was commercialized and later sold to Hummingbird Software.

In 1908, Ernest Rutherford won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on radioactive decay at McGill.

Within Canada, McGill professors have won a total of 26 Prix du Québec, 14 Prix de l'Association francophone pour le savoir and 15 Killam Prizes. McGill is also affiliated with seven Nobel Laureates.

McGill faculty and affiliates awarded the Nobel Prize:

[edit] Rankings

McGill's engineering programs are respected throughout North America.^[80] The Macdonald Engineering Building is adjacent to the Milton Street Gates, the campus's eastern entrance.

McGill is Canada's top-ranked Medical Doctoral university, ranking first in Canada for the third consecutive year in the Maclean's 17th annual University Rankings issue.^[81][82] The university has held first place in student awards for nine consecutive years, and consistently ranks first for reputation and average size and number of social sciences/humanities grants per full-time faculty.^[83] Maclean's also ranked McGill's law school second overall.^[84][85] More specifically, Maclean's ranked McGill's law school first in Canada by supreme court clerkships, third by elite firm hiring, third by faculty journal citations, and seventh by national reach.^[86]

In the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) - QS World University Rankings 2007, McGill University was ranked the best public university in North America, 8th overall in North America, and 12th in the world.^[19][87] Within specific fields, McGill ranked 10th in the life sciences and biomedicine, 12th in the humanities, 12th in the social sciences, 26th in the natural sciences, and 27th in technology.^[19] This achievement has been regarded as the "highest rank to be reached by a Canadian institution."^[88] McGill has been ranked among the top 25 universities in the world since the rankings began in 2004, and is the only Canadian university ranked among the first 30 universities in the world.

Meanwhile in Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities 2007, McGill ranked third in Canada, 44th in the Americas, and 63rd in the world.^[89][90]

In its 2006 ranking of global universities, Newsweek also ranked McGill third in Canada, 30th in North America, and 42nd worldwide.^[91]

In the 2008 College Prowler Online rankings for Academics at North American universities, McGill earned an A- for Academics; making it the only Canadian school to achieve a grade above a B-.^[92]

[edit] Admissions

Admissions to McGill's undergraduate and graduate schools are competitive.^[93][94] For the entering class of Fall 2007, McGill admitted 12,208 (or 46%) of 26,390 undergraduate applicants and 3,188 (or 38%) of 8,377 graduate applicants.^[95] The median high school average for the entering undergraduate class was 90% for Canadian students (89% for students in Ontario and 91% for students from other provinces) and a 3.7/4.0 GPA for American students.^[95] The median SAT scores for verbal, math, and writing were 690, 680, and 690, respectively, and the median ACT score was 30.^[95] The median Quebec CEGEP R score was 30.13.^[95] McGill's entering undergraduate class has the highest average entering grades in Canada.^[5] About 90% of students ranked in the top 10% of their high school graduating class.^[64]

Admissions to McGill's professional schools are also competitive.^[96] For McGill law school students in 2007, the median undergraduate GPA was 83% (3.77 or A-) and the median LSAT score was 160 (83rd percentile).^[97][84]

[edit] Campus

Map of McGill campus and surrounding area.

McGill's downtown campus at night viewed from Mount Royal. The circular building in the foreground is the McIntyre Medical Sciences Building.

[edit] Downtown campus

The main campus is situated in downtown Montreal at the foot of Mount Royal. ^[98] Most of the buildings are situated in a park-like campus north of Sherbrooke Street and south of Pine Ave between Peel and Aylmer streets. North of Docteur-Penfield, it also extends west of Peel for several blocks. The campus is near the Peel and McGill metro stations.

The downtown campus reflects an eclectic mix of old and new buildings, reflecting the various periods in which the buildings were erected and a variety of architectural styles. All of the major university buildings were constructed using local grey limestone, which serves as a unifying element.

Since the 1880s,^[99] McGill has been affiliated with three Theological Colleges; the Montreal Diocesan Theological College (Anglican Church of Canada), The Presbyterian College, Montreal of (Presbyterian Church in Canada), and United Theological College (United Church of Canada).^[100] Additionally, the university's Faculty of Religious Studies maintains affiliations with other theological institutions and organizations, such as the Montreal School of Theology.^[101]

McGill has been directly partnered with five separate teaching hospitals for decades, and also has a history of collaborating with many hospitals in Montreal. In addition to McGill's own Health Centre, these cooperations have allowed the university to graduate over 1,000 students in health care each year.^[102] McGill's contract-affiliated teaching hospitals include: Montreal Children's Hospital, Montreal General Hospital, Montreal Neurological Hospital, Montreal Chest Institute and Royal Victoria Hospital. Other hospitals that students in health care may be exposed to include: Sir Mortimer B. Davis - Jewish General Hospital, Douglas Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital Center.^[103] In 2006, the Quebec government initiated its $1.6 billion LEED redevelopment project for the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), with the notable goal of expanding facilities to two separate campuses.^[104]

Designed in the late 1980s, the McGill University Phytotron occupies the two top floors of the south block of the Stewart Biological Sciences Building, ^[105]and brings together a combination of growth chambers and greenhouse compartments to provide a diverse array of environments for the growth of experimental plants and organisms.^[106]

[edit] Accommodations

Most McGill students do not live in residence (known colloquially as "rez") after their first year of study, even if they are not from the Montreal area. This is due to the fact that McGill's residence system is relatively small for a school of its size, housing approximately 2,400 undergraduate students and a handful of graduate students.^[107] With the exception of certain students returning as "floor fellows," the majority of McGill residences are for first-year undergraduate students only. Senior students are expected to find off-campus housing.

McTavish Street on a foggy day, looking towards Mount Royal. The street is the formal western boundary of the downtown campus (although some McGill buildings are located west of McTavish).

Residences at McGill come in a variety of forms. Many first-years live in the Bishop Mountain Residences (known to most students as "Upper Rez"),^[108] a series of concrete dormitories on the slope of Mount Royal, consisting of McConnell Hall, Molson Hall, Gardner Hall, and Douglas Hall. While the other three dormitories were constructed during the 1960s, Douglas Hall, which opened in 1937, is distinguished by its impressive stone facade and wood interiors. McConnell, Molson, and Gardner Halls share a cafeteria, located at the centre of the three dormitories, known as Bishop Mountain Hall.

The Roddick Gates, the university's "main entrance" from Sherbrooke Street. The gates were erected in 1925 in memory of Sir Thomas Roddick, former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Roddick lobbied for the creation of the Medical Council of Canada which established common standards for medical practise in Canada. Burnside Hall, the tower in the background, houses a number of science departments.

Royal Victoria College, the second-largest residence at McGill, is a women's only dormitory. McGill's newest residence, aptly named New Residence Hall (known simply as "New Rez") is a converted four-star hotel located a few blocks east of campus. New Rez is the largest of the university's dormitories. Solin Hall, an apartment-style residence four metro stops from campus is situated in a converted chocolate factory.

The McGill Off-Campus Residence Experience (MORE) residences consist of a series of converted apartment buildings and houses, the largest of which is The Greenbriar, an apartment-style residence located across from the Milton Gates.

The Macdonald-Stewart Library Building houses the Schulich Library of Science and Engineering.

The university's athletic facilities, including Molson Stadium, are located on Mount Royal, near the residence halls and the Montreal Neurological Institute. The Gymnasium is named in honour of General Sir Arthur William Currie.

Most second-year students transition to off-campus apartment housing, and apartment hunting is sometimes seen as a "rite of passage" for McGill students. In recent years, finding affordable housing has been challenging because of the city's tight housing market, particularly in neighbourhoods close to the McGill campus.^[109] Many students end up living in the "McGill Ghetto," the neighbourhood directly to the east of the downtown campus. Though termed the "Ghetto", the colloquial name for the area is somewhat misleading, in that the space is well-maintained and quite safe. The word "ghetto" is not, in this case, used in a derogatory manner - it is used with the true meaning of the word: a socioeconomically homogeneous area.^[110] In recent years though, students have begun moving out to other areas because of rising rent prices in the Ghetto.

[edit] Recent

There are plans to consolidate the various hospitals of the McGill University Health Centre on the site of an old CP rail yard adjacent to the Vendôme metro station. This site, known as Glen Yards, comprises 170,000 square metres (43 acres) and spans portions of Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood and the city of Westmount.^[111] The Glen Yards project has been fraught with controversy due to local opposition to the project, environmental issues, and the cost of the project itself.^[112] The project, which has received approval from the provincial government, is expected to be complete by 2010.^[113]

[edit] Macdonald Campus

Main article: Macdonald Campus

A second campus, the Macdonald Campus, in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue houses the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Science, the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, the Institute of Parasitology and the McGill School of Environment. The Morgan Arboretum and the J. S. Marshall Radar Observatory are nearby.

Created in 1945, the Morgan Arboretum is a 2.5 square kilometre (610 acres) forested reserve with the aim of 'teaching, research, and public education'. Its mandated research goals are:

• To continue research related to maintaining the health of the Arboretum plantations and woodlands.
• To develop new programs related to selecting species adapted to developing environmental conditions.
• To develop silvicultural practices that preserve and enhance biological diversity in both natural stands and plantations.^[114]

[edit] Other facilities

McGill's Bellairs Research Institute, located in Barbados 12°10′N, 59°35′W, serves as Canada's only teaching and research facility in the tropics.^[115] The institute has been in use for over 50 years, with facilities regularly utilized by the Canadian Space Agency for research.

The laboratories of the Huntsman Marine Science Centre are located in St. Andrews, N.B., on 300,000 square metres (74 acres) of land at the estuary of the 102 kilometre-long (62 miles) St. Croix River.^[116] Host to the Atlantic Reference Centre, which is known throughout the Maritimes for its extensive marine biology collections^[117], the HMS is a research facility "committed to the advancement of the marine sciences through basic and applied research"^[118] and acts as a field facility for research and teaching by McGill and other member universities.

McGill's Gault Nature Reserve 45°32′N, 73°10′W spans over 10 square kilometres (2,471 acres) of forest land, the largest remaining remnant of the primeval forests of the St. Lawrence River Valley.^[119] With the first scientific studies at the site dating as far back as 1859, "Today there are over 400 scientific articles, 100 graduate theses, more than 50 government reports and about 30 book chapters that are based on research at Mont St. Hilaire."^[120]

In 2006, the McGill English Education Center was established in Chang’an, Dongguan, China under the VICTOR International Language Institute. Providing linguistic analysis and English-language instruction, the facility's aim is to become the "best English training center" in the entire region.^[121]

[edit] Student life

McGill's student life is vibrant and exciting, especially with its main location in the heart of downtown Montreal. As Principal Heather Munroe-Blum says, McGill itself is known as an exciting place to be in its own right: "If you want to experience a large urban area with a rich student-centred campus culture and a sense of connection to the world, you won't find a better place."^[122] Additionally, students have the benefit of an expansive agricultural campus farther afield, at the western tip of Montreal.

In its May 2006 issue, Playboy Magazine ranked McGill as the tenth best party school in North America. McGill was the only Canadian university to make it onto the list.^[123]

[edit] Student organizations

There are hundreds of clubs and student organizations at the university. Many of them are centred around McGill's student union building, the University Centre, located downtown and known unofficially as the Shatner Building. In 1992, students held a referendum^[124] and named the building after actor and McGill alumnus William Shatner, although the university administration refused to accept the name and did not show up for the opening. Traditionally, the administration names buildings in honour of deceased members of the university community or for major benefactors—and Shatner is neither.^[125]

The Henry Birks Building, located on University Street.

McGill has two English-language student-run newspapers: the McGill Daily, which is a financially independent publication, and the McGill Tribune, which is published through the Students' Society of McGill University. The Délit français is the Daily's French-language counterpart. CKUT (90.3 FM) is the campus radio station. TV McGill is the University TV station, broadcasting on closed-circuit television and over the internet.^[126]

The campus has an active students' union represented by the undergraduate Students' Society of McGill University (SSMU) and the Post-Graduate Students' Society of McGill University (PGSS). In addition, each faculty has its own student governing body.

SSMU was one of the first in Canada to use an online voting system for campus elections.

While fraternities and sororities are not a huge part of student life at McGill, some, including fraternities A-E-Pi, Delta Upsilon, and Zeta Psi and sorority Alpha Omicron Pi, have been established for many years at the university. Events including Greek week, held annually during the first week of February, have been established to promote Greek life on campus. With just over 2% of the student body population participating, involvement is well below that of most American universities,^[127] but on par with most Canadian schools.

Queer McGill, the university's "social / political / information / support service organization for lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender students, and their friends"^[128], has been open to "undergraduates, post-graduates, staff, as well as non-students in the Montreal community"^[129] since 1998. From 1972, a smaller club known as Gay McGill existed, with the name being changed to suit the group's growing membership (over 400 students) and diversity.^[130]

Student organizations at McGill are internationally recognized in a variety of ways. Many larger organizations and NGOs have a local presence on campus. In addition, the International Relations Students Association of McGill (IRSAM) currently has consultative status with the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).^[131]

[edit] Athletics

McGill is represented in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) by the McGill Redmen (men's) and the McGill Martlets (women's). The school fields between 45 and 53 varsity teams on an annual basis.^[132] McGill's unique mascot, Marty the Martlet, "made his debut during the 2005 Homecoming game, where he was presented to the McGill Athletics Department by the Student Organization for Alumni Relations."^[133]

The downtown McGill campus is home to a wide range of modern sport and exercise facilities. These include: the McGill Sports Centre (housing the Tomilson Fieldhouse, the Windsor Varsity Clinic and more),^[134] Molson Stadium, Memorial Pool, Tomlinson Hall, McConnell Arena, Forbes Field, many outdoor tennis courts and more.^[135] The Macdonald Campus features several sport and exercise facilities as well, including an arena, gymnasium, pool, tennis courts, fitness centre and hundreds of acres of green space for regular use.^[136] The university's largest sporting venue, Molson Stadium, seats over 20,000 people and was constructed in 1914.^[137]

[edit] History

A hockey match taking place at McGill in 1901.

The inventions of North American football, hockey, rugby and basketball are all related to McGill in some way.

The first game of North American football was played between McGill and Harvard on May 14, 1874:^[138] "In 1874, McGill arranged to play a few football games in the United States, at Harvard, which liked the new game so much that it became a feature of the Ivy League."^[139] The world's first organized hockey club (known as the Redmen since 1927), played their first game on January 31, 1877.^[140] In 1865, the first recorded game of rugby in Canada (and North America) occurred in Montreal, between British army officers and McGill students.^[141][142] McGill alumnus James Naismith invented basketball in early December of 1891.^[143]

The school also competes in the annual "Old Four (IV)" soccer tournament, with Queen's University, the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario.

[edit] Sports

McGill maintains an academic and athletic rivalry with Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Animosity between rowing athletes at the two schools has inspired an annual boat race between the two universities in the spring of each year since 1997. This academic and athletic rivalry, which was once very intense, waned after Queen's pulled their football team out of the Ontario-Quebec Intercollegiate Football Conference in 2000, but returned in 2002 and transferred to the annual home-and-home varsity hockey games between the two institutions. Nevertheless, the schools share a successful publishing house, the McGill-Queen's University Press.

There has been a McGill alumnus or alumna competing at every Olympic Games since 1908.^{[144][145][146]} Gold medallists include swimmer George Hodgson—winner of two gold medals—at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, ice hockey goaltender Kim St-Pierre— also a winner of two gold medals—at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, where recently, Jennifer Heil (a current student) was a gold medallist in the women's freestyle mogul event and goaltender Charline Labonté (also a current student) helped Canada win gold in women's ice hockey.

In 1996, the McGill Sports Hall of Fame was established to honour its best student athletes. Notable members of the Hall of Fame include James Naismith and Sydney Pierce.

[edit] Hazing scandal

A 2005 hazing scandal forced the cancellation of the final two games in the McGill Redmen football season. An investigation into the incident showed that "the event did involve nudity, degrading positions and behaviours, gagging, touching in inappropriate manners with a broomstick, as well as verbal and physical intimidation of rookies by a large portion of the team."^[147] Dubbed 'Hazegate' by the local Montreal Gazette, the scandal made national news. In 2006, McGill's Senate approved a proposed anti-hazing policy to define forbidden initiation practices.^[148]

[edit] Finances

McGill has the third largest endowment of all Canadian educational institutions, approaching $1 billion.^[149] This endowment rests within the top 10 percent of all North American post-secondary institutions' (of which there are over 850 such schools) endowments.^[150] The school also maintains the fourth largest endowment on a per-student basis of any Canadian university.

[edit] Tuition

In 1898, Ernest Rutherford became Professor of Physics at McGill, where he met chemist Frederick Soddy. Both men would go on to receive Nobel prizes.^[151]

Tuition fees vary significantly between in-province, out-of-province and international students, with full-time Quebec students paying around $3,500 per year, other Canadian students paying around $7,500 per year, and international students paying over $15,000 per year.^[152][153] However, residence fees at McGill can sometimes exceed tuition fees.

Since 1996, McGill, in accordance with the Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport (MELS), has had eight categories qualifying certain international students an exemption from paying international fees. These categories include students from France, a quota of students from select countries which have agreements with MELS (including Algeria, China, and Morocco),^[154] students holding diplomatic status (and their dependents), and students enrolled in certain language programs leading to a degree in French.^[155]

[edit] Scholarships and financial aid

Scholarships at McGill are relatively difficult to attain, compared to other Canadian universities.^{[156][157][158][159][160]} This is predominantly due to the number of high academic achievers at the school. For out-of-province first year undergraduate students, a high school average of 95% is required to receive a guaranteed one-year entrance scholarship.^[161] For in-course scholarships and renewal of previously earned scholarships, students generally need to be within the top 10% of their faculty.^[162] For in-course scholarships in particular, students need to be within the top 5% of their faculty.^[163][164] McGill itself outlines scholarship considerations as follows: "Competition for basic and major scholarships is intense at McGill. An extraordinary number of exceptional applications are received each year and therefore we cannot award scholarships to all good candidates."^[165] However, it should be noted that for the 2008-2009 school year, over 85% more entrance scholarships may be given to applicants, a number greater than ever before.^[166]

[edit] Campaign McGill

Campaign McGill: History in the Making is a five-year comprehensive campaign that began in October of 2007,^[167] with the goal of raising over $750 million for the purpose of further "attracting and retaining top talent in Quebec, to increase access to quality education and to further enhance McGill's ability to address critical global problems."^[168] The largest goal of any Canadian university fundraising campaign in history,^[169][170] within the first 6 months, McGill had accumulated over $400 million towards its efforts.^[171]

[edit] Symbols

An original "Hail, Alma Mater" music sheet.

"McGill’s first song book, published in 1879 by an anonymous "student in Arts," contains some of the earliest versions of Canadian folk songs in existence".^[172]

The university's symbol is the martlet, stemming from the presence of the mythical bird on the official Arms of the university. Notably inscribed on its arms is also In Domino Confido (I trust in the Lord), James McGill's personal motto.

The formal school song is entitled "Hail, Alma Mater".^[173] The lyrics to the song are:

McGill’s coat of arms.

The University's patent of arms was granted by England's Garter-King-at-Arms in 1922 and registered in 1956 with Lord Lyon King of Arms in Edinburgh and in 1992 with the Public Register of Arms, Flags and Badges of Canada. In heraldic terms, the arms are described as follows: "Argent three Martlets Gules, on a chief dancette of the second, an open book proper garnished or bearing the legend In Domino Confido in letters Sable between two crowns of the first." A modern analysis is as follows: "The dancetty division line along the bottom of the chief reflects the three hills of Montreal, while the colours are those of Canada. The book in the centre of the chief represents learning (just like the book in every other university's coat of arms); the writing in the book is 'In Domino Confido' (I trust in the Lord) and is the motto of J. McGill. The crowns (bearing fleur-di-lys) represent the location of the university in 'Mount Royal'."^[174]

Macdonald Campus' coat of arms.

The school's official colours are red and white. McGill's motto is Grandescunt Aucta Labore, Latin for: "By hard work, all things increase and grow."

Incidentally, McGill's Macdonald Campus has a differing coat of arms, honouring Sir William Macdonald, a major benefactor of the university's fledgling agricultural college. A description of these arms is as follows:

The colour of the field (gold) and the arm holding a cross (red) are from the second quarter of the arms of Sir William Macdonald, the tobacco manufacturer and philanthropist, who founded the College. His armorial bearings derived from the fact that he was a grandson of John, eighth Macdonald of Glenaladale.

Until the 1930s, the College used Sir William's achievement as one quarter of the College arms. The two red martlets and the open book with its motto are from the arms of McGill University. The clover leaves (also gold) signify fertility and their three segments suggest the three purposes of the Campus, i.e. agriculture, service and food.^[175]

[edit] Notable alumni and faculty

Main article: List of McGill University people

McGill alumni have been recognized as academics and scholars, artists, doctors, corporate leaders, media personalities, members of Canadian national teams, and Olympic medalists. Alumni also include two Canadian prime ministers, Supreme Court of Canada justices, and Canadian Ministers of Justice.^[176]

Faculty and alumni include the aforementioned seven Nobel laureates and 128 Rhodes Scholars, in addition to professors who have won 26 Prix du Québec, 14 Prix de l'Association francophone pour le savoir and 15 Killam Prizes.^[60] Alumni also include one Pulitzer Prize winner,^[177] one Templeton Prize winner,^[178] and seven Academy Award winners.^[179]

[edit] Miscellaneous facts

• Created in 2006, McGill's student-generated website Overheard At McGill is a compilation of comical quotes from around McGill and Montreal.^[180]
  

  

House character Dr. James Wilson has an undergraduate science degree from McGill.^[181]

[edit] Battle honours

Battle honours that are awarded to regiments of the British Empire to commemorate their participation in battles have only on two occasions been awarded to educational institutions. The first was to La Martiniere College in Lucknow, and on the second occasion, they were awarded to the McGill University contingent for their bravery at Arras in 1917 during the First World War.^[182]

[edit] Harry Houdini

On October 22, 1926, after giving a performance in the McGill Union Ballroom, renowned magician Harry Houdini was punched several times in the abdomen by McGill theology student J. Gordon Whitehead. It is believed that these punches ruptured Houdini's appendix, which led to his death nine days later.^[183]

Although Gordon Whitehead was never officially charged with the crime, he did sign an affidavit for Houdini's widow so that she could collect insurance under the double indemnity clause.^[184]

[edit] McGill in fiction and pop culture

• Dr. James Wilson — oncologist at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in FOX Network TV drama House is a McGill alumnus.
• Dr. Walter Langkowski, a fictional researcher from the Marvel Comics Canadian superhero series Alpha Flight. Langkowski was portrayed as McGill-based biophysicist researching the gamma radiation accident which created the Hulk. His discoveries transformed him into the superhero known as Sasquatch.
• Major Donald Craig, a Canadian commando serving with British special forces during World War II, portrayed by Rock Hudson in the 1967 war movie Tobruk is a McGill alumnus. Though the film was loosely based on real events, it's not clear whether or not Hudson's character was based on a real person. Most likely he was a pastiche character, given a Canadian background as cover for Hudson's inability to emulate a British accent.
• Lieutenant Alan McGregor, played by Gary Cooper in the movie Lives Of the Bengal Lancers (1935) is a McGill alumnus.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Canadian Ivy League
• McGill College Avenue
• McGill Journal of Medicine
• McGill's Redpath Museum
• McGill Science Undergraduate Research Journal
• McGill University Faculty of Medicine
• Montreal Laboratory (for nuclear research, World War II)

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

McGill University

• Official website
• Pictures and Info on McGill buildings
• AUCC profile

[edit] Histories of the University

• Dr. Stanley Frost.'The History of McGill in Relation to the Social, Economic and Cultural Aspects of Montreal and Quebec' (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1979).
• Dr. Stanley Frost. 'McGill University: For the Advancement of Learning.' Vols I.(Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press © 1980)
• Dr. Stanley Frost. 'McGill University: For the Advancement of Learning.' Vol II.(Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press © 1984)
• H. Keith Markell 'The Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University, 1948-1978' (Montreal: Faculty of Religious Studies, 1979)
• Prof. Peter F. McNally McGill University: For the Advancement of Learning (1970-2002)' Vol III(Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press © 2002)
• Brian J. Young 'The Making and Unmaking of a University Museum: The McCord, 1921-1996' (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, June 1, 2000)

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