Year In Review
On this page:
July 2011 | August 2011 | September 2011 | October 2011
November 2011 | December 2011 | January 2012 | February 2012
March 2012 | May 2012 | June 2012
July 2011
The University community mourns the loss of Emeritus Wainwright Professor of Civil Law Paul-André Crépeau, a McGill professor for more than 50 years. La Presse described Prof. Crépeau as one of the most important legal reformers in Quebec history and a father of Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. He died on July 6 at the age of 85.
August 2011
The Quebec Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports recognizes McGill’s MBA program as a “specialized” program–a decision that will permit the University to continue operating the program on a self-funded basis.
September 2011
McGill, in conjunction with POP Montreal and Win Butler, BA’04, of the rock band Arcade Fire, present the first annual POP vs. JOCK charity basketball game at the McGill Sports Centre. The game features a team of musicians (Team POP) against an all-star team comprised of current and former players from the McGill Redmen and Concordia Stingers (Team JOCK). All proceeds go to DJ Sports Club, a Montreal organization that provides sports, mentorship and educational programs to more than 900 youths.
After months of voting and 60,000 votes cast, the results from the Greatest McGillian Contest are announced: Thomas Chang, BSc’57, MDCM’61, PhD’65, the inventor of the artificial blood cell, comes first, closely followed by poet and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, BA’55, and Nobel-prize winning physicist Ernest Rutherford, who carried out seminal work at McGill in the early 1900s.
October 2011
The Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre officially launches its McGill Dances for Cancer Research video on YouTube. The choreographed video, which features some of McGill’s top cancer researchers, students and technicians, highlights the critical work being done at the Centre, while also raising funds for cancer research. The video generates widespread interest online and in the media. It goes viral, reaching 27,000 hits within days.
The McGill Daily, the University’s independent student newspaper,celebrates its 100th anniversary.
November 2011
Sergio Luzzato, a professor of modern history at the University of Turin, Italy, wins McGill’s 4th Annual Cundill Prize in History for Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age. The Cundill Prize in History at McGill is the world’s most important non-fiction historical literature prize, with a grand prize of U.S.$75,000.
McGill’s Gerald Bronfman Centre for Clinical Research in Oncology launches its anniversary celebrations marking 20 years of patient-focused research, the generosity and vision of the Bronfman Family and seminal work that changed the lives of countless individuals.
We are all McGill, a large student-led rally discusses the events of Nov. 10, when a province-wide protest against tuition-fee increases spilled onto campus and resulted in an occupation of the James Administration Building. The event also draws a number of faculty and administrators, who listen to personal accounts of what transpired.
Entrepreneur and longtime McGill philanthropist Lorne Trottier, BEng’70, MEng’73, DSc’06, brings science out of the ivory tower and into the public domain thanks to a transformative $5.5-million gift to McGill’s Faculty of Science. This endowment will fund in perpetuity the Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium Series, the Mini-Science Series and the McGill Office for Science and Society (OSS), which offers programs aimed at separating scientific fact from fiction.
December 2011
Exercise scientist from the University of South Carolina Dr. Steven Blair is named the inaugural winner of the Bloomberg Manulife Prize for the Promotion of Active Health. The prize, established last year at McGill, is to honour research that has the potential to have transformative impacts on how people approach their health. Blair is widely known as one of the first researchers to link moderate increases in fitness with reduced mortality rates.
The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) teams up with Therapeutic Paws of Canada to bring students a bit of cheer and relaxation in between studying for their exams. Over a three-day period, hundreds of students get a chance to meet, pet and play with a dog.
Members of the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA) ratify a new contract with the University, bringing an end to a three-month-long strike by the union representing some 1,700 McGill lab technicians, IT technicians, clerical staff and library assistants.
Following board consultation, Dean of Law Daniel Jutras issues a report recommending improved procedures and means to create dialogue concerning civic protests on campus. Dean of Arts Christopher Manfredi leads the process of inviting exchange among members of the University Community.
January 2012
Leading McGill administrator and researcher David Eidelman, MDCM’79, is named Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Vice-Principal (Health Affairs). A native Montrealer, Eidelman has previously held posts as a leading clinician-scientist based at the Meakins-Christie Laboratories, Physician-in-Chief at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and Director of McGill’s renowned Division of Respiratory Diseases (see Health).
McGill University’s Life Sciences Complex is awarded LEED gold certification for new construction from the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), a significant upgrade from the silver rating that was first sought. Completed in 2008, it is the only university-owned laboratory building in Quebec to achieve the LEED gold rating (see Infrastructure).
February 2012
A second student occupation of the James Administration Building sparks intense debate and dialogue about the rights of employees to a safe workplace, free expression and peaceful assembly on campus. The sit-in lasts five days and ends peacefully.
About 30 undergraduate and MBA students head to South Africa to meet top business, government and community leaders as part of the “hot cities tour,” the shortest course offered by the Desautels Faculty of Management. The course, now in its fourth year, seeks to bridge the gap between academic learning and the real-world dilemmas that exist outside the classroom.
The McGill Institute for Global Food Security, Canada’s leading multidisciplinary teaching and research hub on global food security, receives a generous $1.5-million gift from New York-based businesswoman Margaret A. Gilliam, BSc’59. The gift supports research, teaching and graduate fellowships at the Institute and helps build on its recent initiatives to tackle the global food and nutrition crisis and seek long-term answers for sustainable agricultural production.
March 2012
The McGill Institute for the Study of Canada examines crime, policing and justice at its annual conference, Crime and the Law: The Future of Justice in Canada.
Josh Redel, engineering undergraduate, is elected President of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) and Jonathan Mooney, PhD candidate in chemistry, is elected Secretary-General of McGill’s Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS).
Economics and Psychology grad Trip Yang produces a five-minute-long celebration of student life with his hip-hop video “A McGill State of Mind.” Set to the tune of Jay-Z’s hit “Empire State of Mind,” the video includes a cast of hundreds of students, faculty and staff and footage in some 35 different locations across campus. Yang’s video has almost 30,000 views on YouTube within its first week.
McGill’s Redpath Museum, one of Canada’s oldest freestanding museums, celebrates its 130th anniversary.
Television funnyman Rick Mercer spends a day on campus to film a segment for his popular show, The Rick Mercer Report. He is at McGill to celebrate the more than $9,000 raised by McGill students–the most raised by any university group in the country–to buy mosquito netting for people in Africa as part of his Spread The Net campaign.
Montreal native, McGill alumnus and professor emeritus, and leading Canadian philosopher and public intellectual Charles Taylor is the subject and the guest of honour at a major conference, “Charles Taylor at 80: An International Conference.” Over the course of three days, scholars from around the world analyze Taylor’s scholarly work and his contributions to public life.
Some of McGill’s trailblazing scientists come together with a delegation from the Canadian Space Agency to share their cutting-edge research with the McGill community at the first ever McGill-CSA Space Day.
May 2012
With Campaign McGill hitting the homestretch, Marc Weinstein is reappointed Vice-Principal (Development and Alumni Relations) for a six-year term. Since his initial appointment in 2008, Weinstein has spearheaded the University’s $750-million fundraising campaign; at the time, the largest and most ambitious ever undertaken by a Canadian university.
The David Colman Symposium brings together prominent international neuroscientists as a tribute to the visionary leadership of the late Neuro director, who passed away unexpectedly in June 2011.
June 2012
As part of McGill’S 190th Anniversary festivities, the University celebrates its distinctly Scottish roots by conferring honorary doctorates on Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, and Sir Timothy O’Shea, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh. Prior to the ceremony, principals Muscatelli, O’Shea and Munroe-Blum unveil three commemorative benches made of Scottish granite in James Square.
Due to the ongoing tuition demonstrations, spring Convocation ceremonies move from the lower field of the downtown campus to indoors at the Bell Centre and the Centre Mont-Royal.
