Kate Williams: A passion for the place

Ironically enough, she, who was being awarded by the YWCA for being a Woman of Distinction, was at a loss for words.

Convinced that she hadn't a hope of winning in the communications category, Kate Williams, director of McGill's University Relations Office and the writer of many speeches for McGill principals, had prepared nothing.

So, uncharacteristically, her thank-you speech was the shortest of all that evening last week, and Williams, who loves to speak on subjects that matter to her -- like McGill -- regrets being so sure of defeat.

"I was so aware of what could be done, had we the resources, that I would not have expected the jury to admire what in fact has actually been accomplished."

But, of course, Williams was nominated for what she's done, both for the University and for women on campus, not for what her modest budget won't permit. Alongside keeping abreast of the myriad activities on the University's two campuses, and making sure McGill's accomplishments and attributes reach the outside world, Williams has also succeeded, in her nine years as director of URO, in putting communications higher on the agenda of the institution's decision-makers.

In her view, it is paramount that an awareness of just what kind of face McGill presents to the world is always taken into consideration.

"I feel so strongly that if you consider the question of communications right at the beginning, you don't need to later. I can't stand how communications is so often isolated from strategy... Good communication is everyone's responsibility."

In the view of Chancellor Gretta Chambers, who has known Williams for decades (Williams once spent a summer looking after Chambers's five young children), Williams's "caring approach" to university relations has made the University be "seen as a far more human place than it used to be.

"She brought that caring approach which, if you've got the intellectual rigour to back it up, is a winning approach."

Williams calls that quality the "different perspective" women bring to decision-making. In order to have more of that difference, she has worked to increase the representation of women in the upper levels of the administration. "There's something missing in an all-male department meeting or committee. It's monochrome."

In large part, it was Williams' contribution to advancing the role of women in the University that won her McGill's nomination for the YWCA prize.

Writes Honora Shaughnessy, executive director of alumni relations, in her statement of nomination: "One of Kate's most effective ways of communicating information within the University has been to send countless articles to members of the University community about what women are doing at McGill."

Williams also made sure she got herself onto influential advisory committees such as the Principal's Advisory Group (the forerunner to the Principal's Council) and was undaunted by often being the only woman at the table. "At those meetings she constantly reminded the members (all in positions of authority) who the upcoming women were and why they should be noted," continues Shaughnessy.

Among her accomplishments, Williams initiated and co-chaired McGill's popular and award-winning 175th year-long anniversary celebration in 1996. She has also been a driving force behind the University's reinvigorated web site -- another award winner.

To say that Williams is a McGill-booster is an understatement. More jaded colleagues sometimes roll their eyes at her enthusiasm for the place. Why does Williams care so much about McGill?

In part, because McGill is in her blood. The first of Montreal Neurological Institute founder Wilder Penfield's 15 grandchildren, Williams considered McGill part of her "backyard" while she was growing up. This early identification with McGill also explains why she opted to do her BA and MA at the University of New Brunswick, instead. "For me a university is an opportunity for exploration," says Williams, sipping her allongé. McGill was a little too close to home.

Mostly, though, it's been a love acquired with the experience of being here. It was only when biology professor Gordon Maclachlan, an acquaintance, urged her to send a résumé to the University, that Williams, then a content stay-at-home mother and freelancer, considered entering the world of nine-to-five .

Her youngest, Ben, was nine and her daughter Hannah, 10 when in 1985, after 11 years at home, raising her two children, studying translation part-time and freelancing in copywriting, translation and restaurant-reviewing, Williams decided to accept an offer from McGill to work as a public relations officer.

Even now, despite the frustrations of not being able to do as much as she'd like to -- "I hate the nickel and diming," she fumes momentarily -- Williams remains committed to McGill even when the head-hunters come calling.

"McGill is such a complex, dynamic institution. Even if there are problems one day, something wonderful will happen the next. It's not like working for a company where the focus is on a unidimensional mission."

Williams also values balance in her life. "People think I'm driven, but I wouldn't want to be the kind of person who sacrifices all for an executive position." Relaxation in the form of family gatherings at the Penfield family property on Lake Memphremagog, Tai Chi, dancing, cooking, gardening and, yes, housecleaning, are also important in the life of this communicator. Williams adheres to advice given her years ago by Gretta Chambers on the subject of purse selection: "Stick to the leather and avoid the brass."

Bronwyn Chester

ILLUSTRATION: TZIGANE

Most people know that peanut allergies are serious business. But they often don't realize just how stressful the potentially life-threatening condition is for the afflicted and their care-takers.

That's the thesis put forward by Dr. Marie-Noël Primeau, a McGill medical resident specializing in pediatric allergy and clinical immunology.

According to a study recently done by Primeau and other researchers at the Montreal Children's Hospital, peanut-allergic children and their families experience even more disruption in their daily lives than do the families of kids who suffer from chronic musculoskeletal diseases (MSD) such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Primeau and her collaborators used questionnaires to gauge the kinds of disruptions and stresses that peanut-allergic children and children with MSD respectively face on a regular basis due to their medical conditions.

Kids with peanut allergies faced more disruptions in their lives as well as more impaired family relations than did children with MSD.

Parents often indicated that they were afraid to send their peanut-allergic children to parties or school field trips for fear that the kids might accidentally ingest a peanut product. These parents and their kids "experience constant uncertainty throughout their lives," says Primeau.

As children with peanut allergies grow up, the stresses become less severe -- "They probably gained more skill in avoiding peanuts, or are used to their disease and are less anxious," Primeau says. MSDs take a harder toll on adults than do peanut allergies.

Primeau urges food companies to make their products safer for people suffering from peanut allergies. Many foods labelled as "may contain peanut products" don't actually have any peanuts in them -- they've simply been processed by machines that also process foods that do contain peanuts. Why not invest in machines that would be restricted to peanut-free food? asks Primeau. That would offer more eating choices to peanut-allergic individuals and lessen their stress load.

Sources: The Medical Post and the McGill Reporter

"The early environment programs the nervous system to make an individual more or less reactive to stress. If parental care is inadequate or unsupportive, the [brain] may decide that the world stinks -- and it better be ready to meet the challenge."


Psychiatry professor Michael Meaney talking about how insufficient parental care can re-wire a child's mind. He was talking to Newsweek.

Many universities are becoming increasingly frustrated with the way, y' know, their students, like, talk. I mean it's, um, just a drag. Totally.

Mallspeak, the lingo of the young made popular in such films as Clueless, is under fire and several schools are setting up programs to teach students how to bolster their verbal skills and communicate properly.

"It drives me crazy," Smith College president Ruth Simmons says of Mallspeak. At the start of this academic year, Smith launched its "speaking across the curriculum" program, featuring "speaking intensive" first-year seminars taught by senior faculty members and an emphasis in many classrooms on oral presentations.

At Mount Holyoke College, as part of its "speaking, arguing and writing" program, students are assigned speaking mentors when they begin their studies. Each class features an oral component and many include oral exams. In a special Speaking Centre, students can videotape each other and are encouraged to critique their work. Speaking centres have also recently opened at several other universities and Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania are both considering placing more emphasis on speaking skills in their courses.

"School has become less formal over the years, so people don't feel as pressured to be as articulate as they were in the olden days," says Mount Holyoke speaking mentor Carrie Alme.

Poor speaking habits hinder students' job prospects once they graduate, argue speaking program advocates.

"If someone talks in a way that does not fit in with our idea of how a credible speaker should talk, we're less likely to pay attention to what that person has to say," explains University of Iowa communication studies professor Bruce Gronbeck.

But some communications scholars aren't so sure about how some of the programs are being implemented.

"What do you think of the concept of 'chemistry across the curriculum?' Maybe everyone should teach a little chemistry in their theatre class or in their history class. [Communications is] a professional field and not everyone who's trained in biology is trained to teach it. They may do more harm than good," warns West Virginia University communication studies professor James McCrosky.

Sources: The Los Angeles Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Boston Globe

"We're going to see a tremendous number of products, a huge number of products, coming out in the next decade. I think it will have a much greater impact than the computer revolution."


Parasitology professor Roger Prichard, McGill's Canadian Pacific Professor of Biotechnology, talking to The Ottawa Sun about the explosive growth of the biotech sector.