The story
The Université de Montréal was founded in 1878 as a branch campus of Université Laval in Quebec City. It was then known as Université Laval à Montréal. The move initially went against the wishes of the Bishop of Montréal, Édouard-Charles Fabre, who advocated an independent university in his city. Certain parts of the institution's educational facilities, such as those of the Séminaire de Québec and the Faculty of Medicine (founded as the Montreal School of Medicine and Surgery), had already been established in Montréal in 1876 and 1843, respectively.
The Vatican granted the university some administrative autonomy in 1889, thus allowing it to choose its own professors and license its own diplomas. However, it was not until 8 May 1919 that a papal charter from Pope Benedict XV granted full autonomy to the university. It thus became an independent Catholic university under its current name, Université de Montréal. The Université de Montréal was granted its first provincial charter on 14 February 1920.
At the time of its creation, fewer than a hundred students were admitted to the university's three faculties, which at that time were located in Old Montreal. These were the Faculty of Theology (located at the Grand séminaire de Montréal), the Faculty of Law (hosted by the Society of Saint-Sulpice) and the Faculty of Medicine (at the Château Ramezay).
Graduate training based on German-inspired American models of specialized coursework and completion of a research thesis was introduced and adopted. Most of Québec's secondary education establishments employed classic course methods of varying quality. This forced the university to open a preparatory school in 1887 to harmonize the education level of its students. Named the Faculty of Arts, this school would remain in use until 1972 and was the predecessor of Québec's current CEGEP system.
Two distinct schools eventually became affiliated to the university. The first was Polytechnique Montréal, an engineering school, which was founded in 1873 and became affiliated in 1887. The second was HEC Montréal, a business school, which was founded in 1907 and became affiliated to the university in 1915. In 1907, the Université de Montréal opened the first francophone school of architecture in Canada at Polytechnique Montréal.
Between 1920 and 1925, seven new faculties were created: Philosophy, Literature, Science, Veterinary Medicine, Dental Surgery, Pharmacy and Social Sciences. Notably, the Faculty of Social Sciences was founded in 1920 by Édouard Montpetit, the first laic to lead a faculty. He thereafter was named secretary-general, a role he fulfilled until 1950.
From 1876 to 1895, most classes took place in the Grand séminaire de Montréal. From 1895 to 1942, the university was housed in a building at the intersection of Saint-Denis and Sainte-Catherine streets in Montreal's eastern downtown Quartier Latin. Unlike English-language universities in Montréal, such as McGill University, the Université de Montréal suffered a lack of funding for two major reasons: the relative poverty of the French Canadian population and the complications ensuing from its being managed remotely, from Quebec City. The downtown campus was hit by three different fires between 1919 and 1921, further complicating the university's already precarious finances and forcing it to spend much of its resources on repairing its own infrastructure.
By 1930, enough funds had been accumulated to start the construction of a new campus on the northwest slope of Mount Royal, adopting new plans designed by Ernest Cormier. However, the financial crisis of the 1930s virtually suspended all ongoing construction. Many speculated that the university would have to sell its unfinished building projects to ensure its own survival. Not until 1939 did the provincial government directly intervene by injecting public funds.
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The campus's construction subsequently resumed and the mountain campus was officially inaugurated on 3 June 1943. The Côte-des-Neiges site includes property expropriated from a residential development along Decelles Avenue, known as Northmount Heights. The university's former downtown facilities would later serve as Montreal's second francophone university, the Université du Québec à Montréal.
In 1943, the university assisted the Western Allies by providing laboratory accommodations on its campus. Scientists there worked to develop a nuclear reactor, notably by conducting various heavy water experiments. The research was part of the larger Manhattan Project, which aimed to develop the first atomic bomb. Scientists working on the school's campus eventually produced the first atomic battery to work outside of the United States. One of the participating Québec scientists, Pierre Demers, also discovered a series of radioactive elements issued from Neptunium.
The Université de Montréal was issued its second provincial charter in 1950. A new government policy of higher education during the 1960s (following the Quiet Revolution) came in response to popular pressure and the belief that higher education was key to social justice and economic productivity. The policy led to the school's third provincial charter, which was passed in 1967. It defined the Université de Montréal as a public institution, dedicated to higher learning and research, with students and teachers having the right to participate in the school's administration.
In 1965, the appointment of the university's first secular rector, Roger Gaudry, paved the way for modernization. The university established its first adult-education degree program offered by a French Canadian university in 1968. That year, the Lionel-Groulx and 3200 Jean-Brillant buildings were inaugurated, the former being named after Quebec nationalist Lionel Groulx. The following year, the Louis Collin parking garage—which won a Governor General's medal for its architecture in 1970—was erected.
An important event that marked the university's history was the École Polytechnique massacre. On 6 December 1989, a gunman armed with a rifle entered the École Polytechnique building, killing 14 people, all of whom were women, before taking his own life.
The Faculty of Theology was closed and transferred to the Institute of Religious Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Science in 2016.
Since 2002, the university has embarked on its largest construction project since the late 1960s, with the construction of five new buildings planned for advanced research in pharmacology, engineering, aerospace, cancer studies and biotechnology.
From Wikipedia’s article on Université de Montréal, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5