Don't Worry, Be Happy (Page 2)

McGill offers complete health services in the Brown Building, with care provided by full-time physicians and nurses. There are confidential consultations for contraception, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, nutrition, and specialty clinics for asthma, dermatology, gynecology, allergies and routine immunizations. Students can meet with a registered dietician or take a variety of health workshops through the Peer Health Education Program, and health awareness events are held across campus throughout the year.

There are also a variety of mental health services that offer treatment and counselling for emotional and personal problems, including psychotherapy and psychiatric treatment provided by a staff of six psychiatrists and psychologists. And because of ailing social support systems, student demand for McGill mental health services is skyrocketing, according to its director Norman Hoffman, who told the McGill Reporter that "eighteen years ago, we had visits from 400 students. This year I think we'll end up seeing about 1,200."

The new dental clinic, run in conjunction with the Faculty of Dentistry, is also proving immensely popular. Appointments can be made all week for routine care or dental emergencies. And they've just added another dentist's chair to deal with the number of tooth-conscious McGill students.

"The First-Year Office has been the single most visible improvement that we've made in terms of adding service," says Jukier. "McGill has never had any particular programs geared for first-year students. We started several years ago by hiring a first-year coordinator, then that grew into a first-year office. That office now staffs an information desk in the lobby of the Brown Building that we want to develop as the central place on campus -- when you don't know where to go or what to do or who to phone -- you come to that central information kiosk."

Orientation has been completely revamped through the First-Year Office as well.

"We started a program called Discover McGill this year that was enormously successful," says the dean. "All 4,000 incoming undergrads were put through a well thought out orientation day made up of information from their faculty, their department, other students, question and answer panels, and the Students' Society. There were workshops with a variety of media: video, slides, oral presentations, a live rant, even a game show between upper-year and incoming students. We've tried to make it interesting, informative and fun."

The office also runs multidisciplinary workshops throughout the year on adjusting to university life and the ensuing workload, and staff keep in touch with students through e-mail and a monthly online newsletter at their web site.

With over 20% of McGill's student body made up of francophones, this brand new position is an important addition to the First-Year Office, since immersion in a different linguistic environment can be hard on incoming students. Quebec students have a slightly lower graduation (or retention) rate at McGill than out-of-province or international students. According to Real Del Degan, BEng'85, MBA'90, Director of the Principal and Vice-Principal Academic's Office, while the retention rate for international students is almost 87% and for out-of-province students is 82%, Quebec students have a 76% retention rate at McGill (still much higher than the rest of the province, which averages between 60% and 70%).

Part of this is explained by "Quebec students having more mobility," says Del Degan. "They know the province and the system and can transfer to other universities," like Laval, Université de Montréal or Université du Québec à Montréal. And while McGill doesn't have any hard data on the matter yet, he says, "we've also hypothesized that it is tied to the language factor -- francophones have extra hurdles and are at a higher risk" of not graduating at an English university. "And we're committed to making sure they graduate."

Working on improving their success "is a responsibility we have," says Vice-Principal Academic Luc Vinet. "If we're attracting [francophones] here, we have to ensure they can get over hurdles. We don't want to wait and have them not do well or fail."

The first-year assistant to francophone students, Cathy Guilietti, BEd'97, says, "Our office will be a place where francophone students can obtain help on anything academic or social." They'll offer study skills workshops to optimize the chances of French students succeeding at McGill, and plan to launch a francophone student network to help students build new social circles, important support for a student leaving friends behind to attend an English university. Through the Admissions, Recruitment and Registrar's Office, francophone students are also being offered a new three-week intensive English course to get them off on the right foot in their McGill experience.

"We've started a house for first peoples," says the dean, "offering a full-time coordinator and a house on Peel Street for aboriginal students who come to McGill. They are dispersed throughout the University with one or two in each department, so now they also have a central place to meet, to have someone to talk to, to be referred to other places they may need to go within the University. It's sort of a home away from home for them."

Jukier visited Concordia University and the University of Toronto, institutions that had already set up their own First Peoples' houses, to see first hand what they were doing for First Nations and Inuit students. Since it can be challenging for an aboriginal student to feel a part of the university community after leaving their own community, McGill's First Peoples' House is intended to give them a greater sense of belonging at the University. The House offers counselling and mentoring services, computer facilities, guest speakers and visits from native elders throughout the year.

The question of student residences causes Dean Jukier to sigh. An increase in the proportion of international and out-of-province students -- international student enrolment has risen from 14% in 1997 to approximately 22% today -- has stretched the residence program beyond its limits as McGill tries to physically cope with its own recruiting success, but Student Services has come up with creative solutions.

"We improved the situation dramatically in a number of ways," says Jukier. "One: we made sure that every single possible room in residence would be devoted to an incoming student. Secondly, we transformed several hundred rooms in different buildings around the campus into what we called MORE, the McGill Off-Campus Residence Experience. It's created several hundred more -- as they say in the business -- 'pillows.' Despite all that, we still need more pillows."

According to Jukier, the only solution is the building of a new residence hall.

"But unlike the University of Western Ontario, for example, we don't have much land to expand to: we're in a very densely populated downtown campus, we're on mountain land and it's very hard to get permission to build. Certainly within the next few years there will be a new residence hall, either a new building or the conversion of a building that is bought. But that's the only solution with the current makeup of students and the current popularity of McGill, particularly in the U.S. and the rest of Canada."