1973

[p. 105] In Chief Wilson’s 1928 report he noted a changing attitude in students. He characterized it thus:

The growth of individualism and a breakdown of college spirit—there was no longer any general support for campus-wide activities.
An interest in religion as philosophy—an approach to religion through the mind.
Impatience with ecclesiasticism.
A desire to discuss religion rather than Christianity.
A spirit of relentless realism.

More than forty years later Ed Nestingen also noted a change in the attitude of students. He characterized it thus:

Less willingness to accept the Y’s structure and formal channels of communication.
Less deference to faculty members—students no longer have a desire to “flock around” faculty members. To be accepted the faculty member must also enter the activity and be a part of the action. Board members tend to be regarded in the same way. They are not looked to so much for advice as for participation.
There is less optimism now about making a better society. This means that the Y’s strategy must change. It must find aspects of a problem that something can be done about, then help the students set up a task force.
Students are more sophisticated about their institutions and how they can be used.
Students are more realistic about the resources necessary to accomplish the job. They know that after the decision to move they must find money and manpower.

The character of the Y Board has also changed. It now contains more activists or members who are willing to accept new programs and help think them through. There are more young Board members. In the 1950s and early [p. 106] ’60s the Y was in the fore of liberalizing movements. It was regarded as an intellectual center. Its position has now shifted to one in which the Y is more important as a medium for getting things done than it is as a catalyst for liberal thought. Students have become more radicalized and have outstripped the Y in this latter respect.

The search for the purpose of life, which never ceases to intrigue man, has been intensified. Students raise questions about the life style and materialistic tendencies of older Americans and reject much of what they see as the ends of life. There is a turn toward basic religious issues to find answers. In 1967 Joseph Sittler, speaking at a Meyer Forum on the Bible and Modern Man, said: “As you probably know, the Church is no longer the stagnant body it once was. Changes in religious thinking are occurring nearly as fast as they are in physics, chemistry or biology. A great many of the old time-honored religious views have now been discarded by the modern theologians. There are new ideas about life, death, man, God, even the meaning of religion itself.”

But there have always been new ideas about these things. Man has not yet implemented fully the earliest humanitarian thoughts he had about life and man. This the Y recognizes and this today’s thinking student recognizes. That is the reason they have and will continue to have much in common. In an interview, M. L. Mosher at the ripe and vigorous age of 90, mused about the generation gap, permissiveness and existentialism—he wondered when the latter crept in—“What does it really mean?” he asked. From his vantage point he observed several generation gaps developing—between himself and his children, between his children and their children, and between himself and his grandchildren—the latter being the most exciting since each held so many surprising notions for the other. In some respects it was the lesser of the gaps, but this is a truism which man has known since the invention of grandparents and grandchildren.

Jerry Glashagel, who served as Y President in 1963-64 after two earlier Presidents resigned, had some picturesque and revealing memories of the early ’60s: “The problems that were fun to work on and the heart of the Y program were the social issues of the day and the problem of getting students turned on to the issues, educated in some new ways, and organized for some kind of individual or group action. It was the last days of the old Great Debate series; it was the early days of the PAL Program; it was during the continually great Faculty Forum series times; it was during a presidential election time of Goldwater versus Johnson and the beginning of the war in Indo-China, one issue we really didn’t get into enough. . . . I don’t remember how much the Y did but rather what attitudes I had and what issues I changed on because of my activity in the U. of I. Y. For example, a rather simple quiet march for open housing. I remember the naive way I joined in and what I learned. I remember John Price talking me into an India work camp; Fred Miller raising the money for me; the work camp being cancelled; going to India anyway on my own and my whole life just changing from a person of Illinois perspectives to a person curious about the whole world.”

[p. 107] In 1973 there is a great inner tension in the University Y. As Ed Nestingen expressed it, a tension “between our heritage and our present reality; between our stated purpose and our practice; between those who are older and remember the YMCA of the 1920s and ’30s and ’40s and those who have come into the YMCA in recent years.”

As expressed in a 1961 statement of purpose “The YMCA by nature, tradition and experience seeks to serve the entire University community. The University is religiously pluralistic including Protestant, Catholic, Jew, Humanist, and others in the faculty and student body. In seeking to be open to and responsive to the University community the YMCA welcomes persons from all these varying religious backgrounds to the end of encouraging the deepest probing of common concerns and of purposeful living.” Reporting a “Conference on the 1970s” held by the Board of Directors and staff of the Y in 1971, Hobart Mowrer made this statement: “Although it was never fully articulated at the conference it is perhaps fair to say that the crucial question which the University YMCA faces is whether it is going to continue in the years ahead to align itself with Christology or humanism. Religiosity in these two frames of reference takes radically different forms, involves very different functions. It was as if this issue was too painful and conflictual to be explicitly discussed at the conference. Here the generation gap seems to be particularly sharply focused. By and large faculty Board members and Y staff seemed to be at least tenuously committed to traditional Christianity whereas the great majority of students are post-Christian and humanistic in their orientation and outlook. One student was outspoken enough to say that in his opinion a lot of today’s undergraduates are put off by the Christology of the YMCA, however nominal that may be.”

But the Y has survived, and vigorously, despite the changes in religious commitment which have taken place, both within the Y and in the general community. The daily prayer meetings which were a part of the Y’s early program didn’t last very long. The missionary effort directed at rescuing “heathens” from their beliefs and converting the whole world to Christianity in one generation changed into the much more practical objective of combining Christian teaching with agricultural and economic help. In one of his reports Chief Wilson said, “A new generation must be appealed to in terms it understands, in a language which conveys the sense of the message. In other words we must learn to speak in terms the present student generation understands tempered by this age of science, broad and general knowledge, and a larger international understanding and appreciation.” The real question is how the Y can continue to convey the humane and lasting concepts of Christianity while it opens its doors to students with a variety of objectives and missions, some of which may seem quite tangential to the Y’s religious roots.

Today’s Programs

“Come to the Whole Earth coffee house in the YMCA. Open Friday and Saturday nights from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. in Murphy Lounge.” “Y PAL Campout at [p. 108] Fox Ridge State Park. If anyone has an extra tent call Ed.” “The Center For Nonviolent Social Change and the History Department will co-sponsor a series of films on social history in the Spring.” “Keith Patton and Peggy Henderson spoke before the Champaign County Board of Supervisors advocating that the deputy registrar system be adopted in Champaign County.” “Lobbying the State Legislature for a good definition of permanent residents will be done during December.” “Rap with your Rep about major environmental issues during Christmas vacation—organized by Dave Stevens of the Students for Environmental Concerns.” “Interest in the YMCA’s Urban Problems seminar continues to grow.” “Water Conference held at YMCA.”

This is the Y of the ’60s and ’70s—still the innovater and catalyst for programs the foundations and the University are unable to sponsor. As the Y moves into 1973 its major programs will be:

The Faculty Forum, now the Friday Forum
Freshman Camp, now Freshman Conference
The PAL Program, which relates University students to youngsters of eight to eleven in North Champaign-Urbana. The PAL Program is organized in ten neighborhood areas each with a parent core group and a parent captain. About 600 people are involved. The program is directed by James Burnett, a black and father of five children.
Students for Environmental Concerns, with a full and ongoing program.
Know Your University, a series of discussions arranged to explore in depth particular University programs and policies and thus broaden the participant’s knowledge of the University. This is proving popular with both students and faculty.
The New York Seminar, a ten-day exploration study on urban problems of New York City involving meetings with city officials, police, businessmen, laborers, politicians, and reformers. This program is held between semesters and yields University credit in many departments.
The Washington Seminar, a ten-day study of government in action in Washington, D. C.
The New Leadership Program, involving representatives of fraternities, sororities, and residence halls.
Continued administration of the Bailey Scholarship Fund with more than $30,000 available for the current year.

No longer in the program are Freshman Fellowship and Fireside Forum. Both were discontinued after World War II. Another casualty is the international program—discontinued for the most part when John Price became a counselor in the Foreign Student Affairs Office of the University. There is some indication that the Y may play a stronger role in the future as the University curtails its foreign student services because of the budget pinch.

[p. 109] The primary entity in determining program now is the Program Decisional Group, which takes the place of the old Y Cabinet. It consists of four students, two faculty members, and two Y staff members. Its function is to provide “a constant and ongoing examination and revision of program goals and purposes and to make week-to-week decisions concerning allocation of program money, initiation of new programs and to deal with any proposals which relate to the YMCA program.” It is assisted by a program council consisting of the student members of the Board of Directors and representatives of the Y program group. A third group called POGA (Program Opportunities and Group Actions), an informal organization of students and faculty members, generates and feeds ideas to the Program Decisional Group.

Membership in the Y is between 400 and 500. But a much larger number participate in its programs. There is no required membership fee, but some contribution is required. Student contributions constitute but a small part of the Y’s budget.

The Staff—What Manner of Men

Following an introduction which says “The “I’s’ have it in the Young Men’s Christian Association of the University of Illinois for 100 years,” Mic Coldwell listed what he called a “decalogue of the verities,” the traits that characterize the ideal YMCA staff member:

Inexhaustible Friendliness—For the shyest, the brashest, the brightest, the otherwisest—any student who comes through our doors.
Infectious Spirit—Never failing enthusiasm with ever-steady sincerity.
Indefatigable Effort—To involve Students, Faculty, Alumni, and Friends in Program and Support.
Infinite Patience—With All People, recognizing that “to err is human” particularly when one is a young man achieving responsible adulthood in a troubled and divisive world.
Imagination—Creative Insight to meet changing situations in order to bring Christian Values to today’s students—tomorrow’s leaders.
Impelling Ideas—A Religious Program geared to the modern intellectual climate and one morally and ethically relevant to today.
Inherently Democratic—The Practice of Brotherhood as well as the study of its theory and principle, with a never-ceasing recognition of the dignity and worth of every human personality.
Integrity—In practice and in teaching, in all relationships with Student, Faculty, the University, and the Alumni; with every person whose life we touch.
Inclusiveness—The YMCA is International, inter-racial non-denominational—seeking a truly Ecumenical Campus.
[p. 110] Inspirational—With an ultimate Purpose—an Illuminated, Incandescent, Invincible Faith in God through Jesus Christ.

If any staff member ever scored more than 50% on Mic’s decalogue he could not have been real—but it is a compelling statement and a yardstick against which anyone so inclined might measure himself. When compared with salaries and perquisites available in the University, it boarders on the unbelievable that for the past seventy-five years the Y has been able to employ with but rare exceptions men of the highest ability. Unless there were real dedication and a deep commitment to helping students become men this would not have been possible. Their payment had to consist in something besides dollars. The Y’s savings and security plan, laudible as it is, hardly serves as an inducement.

The staff which mans the Y as it enters the next century—Harold Reinhart, Executive Director; Hal Colvin, Director of the Bailey Scholarship Fund; Ed Nestingen, Program Staff Director and Bob Scarborough, Program Development Director support this tradition in full. They are all able, have rapport with students, sense the problems of the day, and are committed to keeping the Y viable. Except for Hal Colvin, Ed Nestingen has been on the staff the longest, since 1959. About Ed Nestingen, Jerry Glashagel remarked, “The U. of I. would not have been for me if not for Ed. He kept us going, kept us honest, kept us thinking, kept us practical, kept us stimulated. . . . I can’t think of the U. of I. Y without him.” Ed’s habit of thought about the Y and its program is illustrated by some phrases which he hoped the author would keep in mind: “Visions and deeds; faith and the changing future; exploring the frontiers; experiment and change; we care and we try; a force for constructive change.”

Harold Reinhart has not had a long tenure, coming as executive director in 1967. But he has guided the program and fought for resources with unflagging energy, patience and good nature. His very personality bespeaks the kind of man one envisions as a YMCA leader—or for that matter as a leader in any of the many callings where young men need understanding, firm and positive guidance.

Evaluation—The Case for the Y

Is the University YMCA worth supporting and further developing? Does it have a role? These questions have been raised—and answered—since the inception of the Y at the University of Illinois. Chief Wilson answered the question adequately and eloquently many times, but in the ’50s and ’60s and ’70s the question has been raised more often. Large numbers of university and college YMCAs throughout America have been unable to supply an answer and they have gone out of existence. Speaking of this question in 1961 Fred Miller wrote by way of answer: “Read your newspapers. Right here in our own United States . . . the spiritual forces of morality and honor are desperately hard pressed. All over the world trust has been cast away; morality is only a word; honor is ‘corny.’ The end justifies the means. Christ is a displaced person. . . . Ask yourselves, ‘Should not the forces of all men of good will be rallying about any stronghold [p. 111] that teaches the value of moral and spiritual order.’ Ask this question of yourselves with the University of Illinois YMCA in mind.”

There have been and will continue to be good answers to the question: Why the University of Illinois YMCA? Distilled out of what has been said, what the Y has done, and what it is doing today are the following:

It makes possible a depth of concern for the individual which cannot be achieved in the University. For countless men it has been an answer to what Mic Coldwell described as “the quiet longing in the heart of every student for fellowship and friendship and for the recognition of his worth as an individual.”

It has been committed to action following awareness. After examining social issues, something has been done. Suggestive of this role were many of the themes for the Centennial proposed by a group of students: Youth, Motion, Concern; Action; Yearly Motivation of Community Awareness; A Challenge for Change; The Green House for Campus Causes; Coping: The Rock of Champaign.” There is hardly an issue of the Daily Illini that doesn’t carry one or more items about University YMCA activities.

The Y is always there. It has a building, a home, friendly people inside; one can walk in and read a newspaper, make a telephone call, xerox class notes, talk to a secretary, have a cup of coffee and a sandwich, meet friends, use the dark room, store his suitcase, meditate in the chapel.

It has gained a reputation for pioneering—with ideas, social issues.

It has sought to instill the Christian philosophy without being obnoxious or dogmatic about it. It is not concerned that all be attracted to Christianity—“Some in their growing awareness will be more attracted to other of the great world religions than Christianity. Some will be agnostic; some perhaps strengthened in humanistic beliefs.” This from a 1962 report on the role of the YMCA and YWCA at the University of Illinois:

It has been and continues to be a unifying and coordinating force, not just among religious groups on the campus but also among social and action groups that need to join in common tasks.

It has been a medium for original thinking and liberalized activity.

Its appeal is campus wide and inclusive of all faiths including those with no faith. Instilling faith remains one of its functions.

It continues to find and render services which improve the quality of life in the University and in the surrounding Community.

Despite lessening intercollegiate contact with other Ys it continues to glean ideas and experience valuable to its own program.

These attributes point to a long life for the University of Illinois YMCA. Regardless of the nature of its religious roots, it has substituted social action and humane concern for the doctrinaire. It has not forsaken old values; it has found new and different ways of implementing them. It has seized upon causes which were either taboo or latent and has made them a part of its program. There has been established a continuum with no foreseeable end as long as those who are the Y perform with the vigor, awareness and imagination of their predecessors.

2073

[p. 112] Today’s people are the only ones who can face tomorrow. There are never any tomorrow people. Such awareness as we can generate about tomorrow must be generated today, for tomorrow we are there and then it is too late. To reflect we have to act.

If the past is only prologue, what has the first one hundred years in the life of the University of Illinois YMCA told us about the next one hundred or the hundred after that? Despite man’s limited ability to forecast and his dubious record with the crystal ball, even when it is called long-range planning, man must by his very nature plan and predict—even if the result is simply to find one set of unforeseen problems substituted for another.

During the first 100 years the University Y moved from simple prayer meetings and the saving of souls (the annual report forms of the national organization included an item for the number of conversions) to a multiplicity of aims, objects, and programs ranging from the original—the preservation of Christianity’s message—to providing a forum for voices of dissent, some of which were opposed to the very Christian ethic for which the YMCA stood. It has moved from no home to one which has been adequate for the last third of its life; from a dozen members to hundreds of members; from no staff members to several full-time staff members; from beards to no beards to beards; from casual dress to suits and vests to casual dress.

During this first century the Y’s clientele has changed materially—from social life to social issues; from dances to dissent; from the sophomore cotillion to the sophomore confrontation; from junior prom to junior protest; from bashfulness to boldness. During the next one hundred years will the gap between ideals as researched, taught, and discussed; and as extolled, compromised and avoided in business, politics, the professions and in the organized church narrow? If so, what role will the University of Illinois YMCA play? Will students still abound on the Champaign-Urbana campus or will remote teaching devices, picture-phone, the growth of community colleges, changes in ideas about higher education result in a different kind of campus with a loss of clientele for the YMCA and other organizations which are now going strong?

What are the trends regarding the YMCA movement—worldwide, American, at the University of Illinois? From 1961 to 1971 the number of university YMCA’s diminished from 300 to 50. Why was this so? Did they fail to respond? Were they hesitant about becoming forums for dissent, a center for student action of many kinds, a place where unpopular causes and unpopular speakers were given a voice? What will keep the University of Illinois YMCA alive for another one hundred years? How will religion fare in the University? Is the Jesus movement a fad or is it one that will condition the future?

When we look at the past we may be amused or bemused at the brittle religious formalism which accompanied so many young men into the YMCA. They came bringing with them the values of the times and of their communities. [p. 113] But they were deadly serious about the same thing that their counterparts one hundred years later are concerned about—the purpose of a man’s life. While the approaches are different, the objective is the same—to find this purpose. Throughout its 100-year history the University YMCA has helped young men in this quest. Its programs and its emphases have changed, but the objective has not. Initially it was welcomed as a religious oasis, and a Protestant oasis at that, in what many feared would be a godless institution. But it and other university YMCAs soon realized that religious pluralism and the acceptance of men of all faiths must be the rule if programs were to involve reality and attract the diversity of talent necessary for the achievement of results.

How will the YMCA express the religious and spiritual message which it was founded to convey? Will the move away from formal expression of spiritual feeling continue? How will the Y inject into its programs of the next 100 years the concept that the spiritual side of man is important and that despite the conflicts and causes which can be aired through the medium of the Y there is still this fundamental objective?

What will be the physical needs of the Y during the next 100 years? If education can be carried on with fewer buildings, perhaps the Y will find that its programs of the future depend less on buildings. One of the early fears was that the University of Illinois YMCA would become a building YMCA with the Y being what took place within the building rather than what took place in the thoughts and feelings of men outside the building.

The future of the world of man depends on the kind of men who live in the world. The genius of the University of Illinois YMCA has been its concern about the kind of men that students will become. As long as this concern continues there will be a role for the University YMCA.

Speaking at the University of Illinois commencement in 1960, Dr. James R. Killian, Chairman of the Board of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said, “My conviction deepens that knowledge without virtue is sterile and dangerous and that most of the world’s ills stem from the divorcement of these two goals.” During the next 100 years the necessity of wedding knowledge and virtue will be at least as great as it has ever been. Therefore, the need for the University of Illinois YMCA with its meaningful and effective grasp of this necessity will be as great as ever. The theme of this Centennial—“A century of service; faith for the future”—is also a statement of its goal for the next 100 years of action.