La Presse: Grant to McGill won't bring anything sexy but it'll make a great school better

Repairing roofs and shoring up foundations. Buying new equipment and replacing old pipes, wonky plumbing and ventilation systems that are older than all of the students and most of the faculty. McGill University's principal Heather Munroe-Blum is the first to admit that the institution won't spend the $103 million it is getting from Ottawa and Quebec on anything sexy. But researchers say the grants, announced yesterday as part of the $2-billion Knowledge Infrastructure Program unveiled in the federal budget last spring, will allow the university to attract great students and hang on to brilliant faculty, refurbish outmoded laboratories and acquire brain scanners that will provide psychiatrists the latest tools in the fight against mental illness.