McGill principal delivers major public address
May 13, 2003
Dr Heather Munroe-Blum, principal of McGill University, will call for "an effective public policy framework" when she addresses the Montreal Board of Trade today at lunchtime. In her first major speech to the business community, she urges Board members to work with the city's universities "to create a unique synergy" between Montreal's "diverse, tolerant and enchanting" qualities of life and the very special strengths associated with its intellectual, scientific and technological productivity. The important thing is to create incentives for excellence and productivity, she argues, and to respect the ability of universities to define their own distinctive niches and benchmark themselves against their peers. Collegiality and competition can thrive side by side, but a policy framework that encourages innovation and flexibility will strengthen Montreal's prosperity in all senses.
As principal of McGill, Heather Munroe-Blum is the CEO of one of the city's major enterprises, with a workforce of 8,000 staff, a student population of close to 30,000 -- together creating an increasingly bilingual, multicultural university community at McGill -- a large physical plant spanning two campuses and 170 buildings, and an annual operating budget of approximately $730 million. Moreover, McGill attracts from outside the province approximately $850 million annually of new resources to Quebec. The potential for sound partnership with all sectors of the community has never been greater and, declares Munroe-Blum, "we are at a point in time when higher education has never been more centrally important to our society."
In her address to the Board, Dr Munroe-Blum also touches on the contribution of the University's renowned Faculty of Medicine, including its ability to attract outside expertise that greatly enriches the Quebec health care system. The contributions of McGill and its sister universities to the city's health and vitality offer dazzling opportunities for the future, provided that all sectors work in partnership. "With you McGill is committed to building on Montreal's already strong foundation as a 'ville universitaire, une ville du savoir' and, of course, 'une ville du savoir-vivre,' " concludes Principal Heather Munroe-Blum.
