Athletes of the year: Tambra Dunn and Marc Mounicot



Soccer player Marc Mounicot and long-distance runner Tambra Dunn were honoured last week at the 21st annual McGill intercollegiate sports awards gala as the University's athletes of the year.

Mounicot, a French native, is the first soccer player to win the D. Stuart Forbes Trophy since Dickens St. Vil in 1983. The 34-year-old, who is completing his master's degree in physical education, put McGill in position last year to win the national title over heavily favoured UBC by scoring the crucial tying goal. He has also twice earned All-Canadian honours and, this year, was awarded the Bill Searles Trophy as the soccer team's MVP.

Dunn, from St-Bruno, Quebec, wins the Gladys Bean Trophy, awarded since 1992 to the McGill female athlete who brings most credit to the University. The 21-year-old management student has twice been awarded All-Canadian honours in track and three times in cross country, and she was also named most valuable player in both those sports.




Construction of $26 million Brain Tumour Research Centre begins



The ground was officially broken last Monday to begin the construction of the Montreal Neurological Institute's Brain Tumour Research Centre. The $26 million dollar centre, of which $6 million is for the construction alone, will bring together approximately 100 brain researchers and biotechnology scientists from around the world. Already, said Dr. Richard Murphy (second from left), director of the MNI, "In Quebec, Ontario and Alberta, a number of major research institutions and hospitals have shown their readiness and interest in collaborating with us."

Bernard Landry (left), deputy premier and Quebec minister of finance, congratulated the University and the MNI on this initiative: "The creation of this centre will reinforce Montreal's already enviable reputation as a world-class player in biotechnology research."

The new centre will house six biotechnology research laboratories and a conference centre equipped with the latest communications technology. Funding will come from the MNI's Molecular Medicine Campaign, launched in 1994 with a target of $42 million, half of which has already been raised. Scheduled to open in early 1999, the centre will be located next to the MNI's Molson Pavilion for Molecular Medicine and will be directed by Dr. David Kaplan, a world-renowned researcher who came to the MNI from the National Cancer Institute in the United States.

Brain tumours claim 15,000 lives every year in North America where 80,000 new cases are diagnosed annually. Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable.




Student effort raises $1.2 million for libraries



In an event unparalleled in the history of post-secondary education in Canada, McGill undergraduate students have helped raise $1.2 million to improve their libraries. The drive to raise the money began in the spring of 1996 when students agreed in a referendum to pay an additional $20 per year as a contribution to the Library Improvement Fund, created by the Students' Society of McGill University. The students contributed half the $1.2 million and the University matched their contribution.

As announced last Thursday, the Library Improvement Committee, a joint library administrators-LIF body, now has the means to set up a $100,000, 25-computer electronic classroom and purchase $750,000 worth of books and periodicals.

"The SSMU is very proud of the contribution which it is making towards the betterment of the libraries," says Elizabeth Gomery (centre), chair of the LIF committee. "All Canadian universities have been adversely affected by the systematic cuts to education in the past decade. The students at McGill don't want to see those cuts damage such an important aspect of our university."

Director of Libraries Frances Groen (left) lauds the students' efforts: "Congratulations to the McGill undergraduates for seeing a need and doing something about it."

This is not the first time McGill students have come to the aid of their libraries. The Arts Undergraduate Society, the Law Students' Association, the Music Undergraduate Students' Association and the Social Work Students' Association have also contributed to their respective libraries.