Notre histoire

“It’s the fact that it is one of the greatest French language universities in the world that makes the Université de Montréal special, not its religious aspect,” declared world renowned biochemist Roger Gaudry shortly before he was appointed. In 1965, Gaudry became UdeM’s fifth rector, but he was the first secular academic to hold the prestigious position. He was the artisan of the University’s modernization during the Quiet Revolution, and oriented the institution’s mission towards graduate studies and research. He also completely restructured the administration and faculties.

Born just after World War II, they took the University by storm in the mid-60s. When the baby boomers arrived, UdeM’s student population skyrocketed. From 6000 in 1942, the number of students shot up to over 9000 in 1965. In order to deal with the huge contingent, the University had to hire large numbers of professors and support staff. The growth continued throughout the 1960s, which was the time when higher learning was democratized in Québec. Between 1963 and 1970, the number of professors, students and support staff doubled.

The University set up the Department of Demographics, the first in Canada. Under Jacques Henripin’s leadership the new department focussed mainly on populations from the past, and created the historical demographics research program, of which the jewel was the Répertoire des actes de baptême, mariage et sépulture du Québec ancien. In 47 very dense volumes, it brings together some 700,000 documents on christenings, marriages and funerals from the beginnings of colonization in Québec until 1799. This database is an invaluable tool for researchers, and has been online since 1999. It is also very popular with amateur genealogists.

Wishing to modernize its image, the UdeM asked architect and urban planner Jean-Claude Lahaye to design a new logo. He suggested a stylized drawing of the main pavilion based on the initials U (the tower) and M (the three front doors). The logo was initially employed only for signs on campus, but gradually came to be used on sports equipment, parking permits and letterhead. In 1984 it officially replaced the heraldic crest, though the latter is still used on official documents. In 1999, a new variation of the logo was adopted; it maintains the original design but not the frame.

Freed of the Church’s control, in 1967 the University adopted a charter, the third since 1920, which laid the foundations of the institution as we know it today. The new charter recognized academic freedom and marked the elimination of the University’s denominational status: “Whereas the University recognizes that its members have the freedom of conscience, teaching and research inherent to a public academic institution.” The document also provides for three key bodies: the Board, the University Assembly and the education commission.

Two years earlier, the University had acquired the Tandem van de Graaff, a particle accelerator that replaced the Cockroft-Walton, which had been built in the 1950s by Paul Lorrain, Professor in the Physics Department. The Nuclear Physics Laboratory was inaugurated in 1967 in order to house the gigantic machine. The Laboratory initially specialized in nuclear spectroscopy, but later focussed on particle physics. Renamed the René-J.-A.-Lévesque Laboratory, in honour of its first Director, in 1997 it acquired a cutting edge accelerator designed specially for research in matter.

Students boycotted the cafeteria and decided to open a café that they would manage themselves. Located at the corner of Decelles Avenue and Queen-Mary Road, Café Campus advertised itself as “the gathering place for student youth,” and quickly gained a solid reputation as a great night club. Nearly all the great Québec singers appeared there: Beau Dommage, Pauline Julien, Félix Leclerc, Octobre, Diane Dufresne, Plume Latraverse, Robert Charlebois, etc. Purchased from the student association by its employees in 1981, the Café moved to Prince-Arthur Street in 1993 following noise complaints from neighbours.

Faced with the growing student population and increase in number of faculties (nursing, education, urban planning, optometry, physical education), UdeM had no choice but to build. In 1968, construction work began on three major buildings: the Maximilien-Caron Pavilion, the Lionel-Groulx Pavilion and 3200 Jean-Brillant. Of the 33 buildings comprising today’s campus, 10 were built in the late 1960s. In 1970, the HEC moved into a new Decelles Avenue building on the UdeM campus. As its affiliated schools moved closer, their relationships with UdeM strengthened to form a veritable university complex.

Professor in the Department of Sociology, Guy Rocher published the first part of his three-volume Introduction à la sociologie. The work introduced students and researchers to the major themes in modern sociology and to research methodology in the social sciences. It won the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences annual book award, and has been translated into six languages and used around the world thanks to carefully updated new editions. It has been required reading for all sociologists trained in Québec for the last 30 years.

The headline of the first issue of UdeM’s newspaper was “Une université qui bouge” – “A University on the Move.” The date was September 8, 1969 and the new weekly, Forum, took the baton from Hebdo-Information. It reports on university life and showcases research by professors and students at UdeM. Since 1975, it had been produced by the University’s Communications Directorate, which also publishes Forum express, a bimonthly research newsletter targeting journalists and the general public. Forum has won three awards from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education, has a circulation of 15,000, and also appears in electronic form.

The creation of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the Faculty of Graduate Studies renovated the faculty structure that had prevailed for 50 years. UdeM had entered the modern era. The FAS merged five faculties that had been operating since 1920: letters, philosophy, social sciences, arts and science. The Faculty of Graduate Studies brought together Master’s and PhD programs in the University’s faculties, schools, institutes, departments and affiliated schools. This was the beginning of a multidisciplinary revolution through which the University harmonized the requirements of the various programs.

Six years after the foundation of the Faculty of Urban Planning, where he had been teaching architecture since 1971, Jean-Claude Marsan published his PhD thesis: Montréal en évolution, historique du développement de l’architecture et de l’environnement montréalais. The work renewed study of Montréal’s architectural history and raised awareness in Québec with respect to preservation of its architectural heritage. Under Marsan’s influence, many groups were formed to protect buildings in Montréal, including Friends of Windsor Station, Sauvons Montréal and the Fondation Héritage Montréal.

In 1975, twenty years after the creation of the professors’ association (AGPUM), the professors’ union, the Syndicat général des professeurs de l’UdeM (SGPUM), was certified by the Ministère du Travail. The SGPUM spent its first years federating professors in the faculties of fundamental sciences and the so-called professional faculties so as to represent a majority of UdeM’s professors. Two years after its creation, it signed the first three-year collective agreement with management. Today some 1300 professors belong to the union and its eighth collective agreement is on the bargaining table.

Seven years after the student association was dissolved, 10 associations got together to oppose a rise in student services fees, and founded the Fédération des associations étudiantes du campus de l’UdeM (FAECUM) – the federation of student associations at UdeM. The FAECUM protects the rights of both undergraduate and graduate students, and is University management’s primary contact with respect to issues concerning campus life. The federation encompasses 77 associations, represents 27,000 students, and, since 1985, speaks on behalf of students jointly with the continuing education students’ association (AGEEFEP).

In 1976, the Department of Physical Education, now called the Department of Kinesiology, inaugurated the Université de Montréal’s sports centre, generally known as CEPSUM. Long desired by the University community, CEPSUM was built thanks to the fact that the twenty-first Olympic Games were held in Montréal. CEPSUM has an area of 37,800 m2, and includes a stadium, Olympic pool, arena, gymnasiums and a sports medicine and kinesiology clinic. In 2002, the turnstiles counted a million entries, and 15% of the users were from the Montréal community.

The University established a standing committee on the status of women. It was mandated to identify women’s needs and to promote women on campus. The creation of the committee coincided with the growing proportion of women students. Since the 1980s, there have been more women than men at UdeM, and their proportion continues to grow in most programs, except at the PhD level. Women accounted for only 12% of professors in 1978; 25 years later the proportion was 27%, and when the last collective agreement was signed, 40% of UdeM’s professors were women.

UdeM and Laval University inaugurated the astronomy observatory on Mount Mégantic, which they manage jointly. Located at 1111 metres of altitude on the highest mountain accessible by car in Québec, the observatory is equipped with a Ritchey-Chrétien telescope weighing 24 tonnes, and aims a 1.6 m.-diameter mirror at the sky. Since 2002, the observatory has had the world’s most sensitive photon counting camera, which can magnify a photon 10 million times.

Hubert Reeves, Research Director at the CNRS in France and Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at UdeM, published Patience dans l’azur, which is considered a masterpiece of popularization. Written for the general public, the book sold over a million copies and is translated into 25 languages. Since then, Hubert Reeves has pursued a dual career as a researcher and populariser. In 1999, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid 9631 “Hubertreeves” in his honour. Every year the Fonds Hubert-Reeves awards a scholarship to a graduate student in astrophysics.

The university’s chef, Valère Lavallée, took retirement after having fed three generations of students. Unknown to the general public, he was nonetheless a living legend on campus. In the 1940s, the cafeteria was nicknamed the Valèretéria. In the 1950s the Valère Trophy was created in his honour – it was a coffee pot on a wooden base that was awarded to the faculty that raised the most for the Prêt d’honneur. When vending machines appeared on campus they were called “Valères with buttons.” In 1967, UdeM honoured him along with Hans Selye and other famous academics.