Principal's message

McGill’s strengths — brilliant students and professors, outstanding programs, fiercely loyal alumni — are all points of enormous pride. From its founding nearly two centuries ago by philanthropist James McGill, the University has had an impact felt in virtually every field of human endeavour. Ernest Rutherford’s pioneering work on radioactivity opened the field of atomic physics. By bringing a humanistic touch to scientific excellence, Sir William Osler revolutionized modern medicine. John Humphrey penned the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a milestone in the evolution of peace, justice and freedom.

Indeed, it is hard to think of a country or a profession where McGill people have not made a mark. But a proud past is no guarantee of a proud or relevant future. We live in a time in which complex problems — medical, scientific, socio-economic and cultural — require complex thinking across many disciplines. McGill’s strong tradition of leadership and innovation positions us to meet these challenges.

Since 2000, McGill has hired up to 100 new faculty members every year in disciplines of critical importance, recruiting talent from the world’s best universities, including Harvard, Princeton, the Sorbonne, Yale, Stanford and Oxford. We are implementing the recommendations of the Principal’s Task Force on Student Life and Learning to ensure that our students receive an education that prepares them to achieve their full potential in life.

We have worked with the University community to review our strengths and to anticipate and respond to our challenges. Together, we have crafted a plan that builds upon our unique attributes: the cross-cultural composition and incredible talent of our student body; the extraordinary expertise and commitment of our faculty; the broad range and profound depth of our research; our international diversity and reach; the ease with which our professors work across disciplines; the multicultural, multilingual environment of Montreal; and an entrepreneurial spirit that allows us to punch above our weight.

In short, we are doing our part to honour our legacy and fulfill our potential.

I invite you to help McGill address the most important challenges of our era. Campaign McGill will build on our considerable assets and gather together the best and brightest minds — a powerful community of people who will advance health, build prosperity, create the next generation of science and technology, protect the environment, and strengthen culture and civil society. This $750-million venture, the most ambitious in McGill’s history, will allow us to better nurture talent, to foster ideas and to help our extraordinary faculty, students and staff who are making history.

Campaign McGill is a clarion call to our friends and supporters across Canada and around the world, that we all have a role to play in carrying McGill forward.

We have high ambitions for teaching, for research, for impact on a global scale. We have a responsibility to build prosperity and to be a driving force for human progress, at home and abroad. Together, we can build on the legacy of James McGill and define a future even more powerful than our past.

Professor Heather Munroe-Blum
Principal and Vice-Chancellor