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As the 1960s began, there was no outward sign of approaching tumult. Life on campus had changed little since 1950. Cyril James still presided over McGill, and while student enrolments across the country were about to balloon, members of his old guard called for retrenchment. |
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At the 1960 convocation, honorary degree recipient Senator A.K. Hugessen suggested that by 2010, McGill might expect a student population between 15,000 and 20,000, and called the prospect "a monstrosity."
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Change began outside the Roddick Gates with Quebec's Quiet Revolution, which wrested many institutions away from the control of the Catholic church. There was a rise in nationalist fervour, and the provincial government knew that a key to transforming Quebec society lay in revamping its education system. The Parent Commission began to study the system, including McGill's role in Quebec.
The University also examined its role as the administration busied itself preparing extensive briefs for the Parent Commission, as well as for a royal commission on bilingualism and biculturalism and another on university financing. Meanwhile, the federal and provincial governments, which had been wrangling for years over who should impose and collect taxes, were finally able to reach settlement on the question of grants for Quebec universities.
By the beginning of 1963, Cyril James had been replaced by Dr. H. Rocke Robertson (the first McGill graduate to serve as principal), the initial wave of baby boomers was bringing McGill perilously close to the nightmare scenario feared by Hugessen, and the University was finally receiving regular government financial support, although disputes over the fairness of the funding formula would continue through succeeding administrations.
The first demonstration on campus happened in 1965, when 2,000 students held a Day of Action to protest a tuition hike. As reported by the News, the crowd was orderly -- the students had even appointed parade marshals. After hearing from student leaders, faculty members like Charles Taylor, and Quebec Minister of Natural Resources René Lévesque, students staged a sit-in at the Arts Building and presented a petition to Principal Robertson. "Dr. Robertson accepted the petition 'in the spirit in which it is given,'" said the News, and he thanked them for the "way you've conducted this."
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The magazine reported cheerfully on Expo '67, Montreal's extraordinary international fair, since hundreds of McGill graduates and staff had contributed to the planning and execution of the fair, and students could pick and choose from the wealth of summer jobs it provided. But as Expo '67 ended that fall, the University found itself plunged into chaos as a result of what came to be known as "the Daily incident." In an article entitled "Seven days that shook the campus," the News chronicled the events which began with the reprinting of material from a U.S. satire magazine. Supposedly revealing incidents aboard Air Force One after President Kennedy's assassination, including an act of necrophilia by Lyndon Johnson, the article and the Daily were immediately condemned. Word spread beyond the campus, and became news in Montreal papers as well as in The Globe and Mail. Complaints poured in to the Graduates' Society and to members of the University administration. The principal called the Daily editors to appear before a disciplinary committee. Sit-ins, sleep-ins and break-ins followed as students registered support for freedom of speech and protested that no students were represented on the committee. For days the media gathered outside the administration building, and demonstrators hung out sixth-floor windows yelling to supporters below.
The administration apparently took a firm but measured approach to the student protesters, allowing them to withdraw voluntarily before resorting to calling in police. The remaining demonstrators were removed from the building lobby and the Principal's office, and the roster of students to be disciplined was now a lot longer. Over the next few months, there were legal challenges to the University's authority to deal with the students, but eventually the matter was resolved without too much ill will on either side. In fact, the administration agreed to form a tripartite committee to study the role of students in University government, and Senate issued the following rather hopeful statement: "It is expected that [the committee's] recommendationsÂ…will give McGill University one of the most progressive and advanced governmental structures of any institution of higher learning in Canada."
Whether or not that goal was achieved, there is no doubt that McGill underwent a complete transformation during the decade, moving from Cyril James's autocratic administrative style to Rocke Robertson's willingness to share power, adding 13 new campus buildings, and losing its status as the country's only private university.
