William McGill Speeches, 1971-1980

William James McGill was born February 27, 1922, in New York City, the son of a musician and grandson of an Irish immigrant dockworker. Raised in the Bronx, he sold shoes and ran an elevator at Radio City Music Hall as a schoolboy. After receiving bachelor's and Master's degrees at Fordham, he earned the PhD in experimental psychology in 1953 at Harvard and was an assistant professor at MIT until 1956, when he joined Columbia. He was chairman of the psychology department from 1961 to 1963 and left in 1965 to co-found the psychology department at the newly established University of California, San Diego campus.

After serving as chancellor at UC San Diego, he became Columbia University's 16th president on September 1, 1970, at the age of 48. As president, McGill was determined to mend ties with the community and end violent student protests. He had a reputation for thrusting himself into the middle of student protests to converse with the leaders. In addition to student protests, when McGill took office he faced more than a decade's worth of budget deficits. Resolved to correct the budget problems, McGill stalled University growth and in 1978 was able to report to the trustees that the University had achieved financial stability. During his presidency, the University's fund-raising performance recovered dramatically; he balanced the budget and completed $100 million in new construction. McGill returned to UC San Diego in 1980, became an adjunct professor of psychology and continued his research.