University YMCA · 1001 S. Wright St., Champaign, IL 61820
Visit universityymca.org[p. 20] Samuel Parr’s association with the University YMCA spans several decades—from 1878 when he arrived at the Illinois Industrial University as a student until 1925 when his service as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Y terminated. He experienced the early years when membership was small and program limited, the growth that took place from the ’90s onward, and the dynamic and extensive changes which came after World War I with Henry Wilson and Mic Coldwell, both on the staff.
Other stalwarts of the Parr era were Ira O. Baker and Thomas J. Burrill. Between them Burrill and Parr chaired the YMCA Board for a quarter of a century—Burrill from 1900 to 1913 and Parr from 1913 to 1925. But for years before and also during Burrill’s chairmanship, Parr played a continuous and effective role. Hal Colvin, who was a young Y staff member after World War I, described Parr as a powerhouse and a tireless volunteer. Ira Baker was also a tireless and dedicated worker for the Y, but as personalities go, he was overshadowed by Parr.
Indicative of the esteem in which Parr was held was the portfolio of some 200 commendatory letters bound and presented to him in 1923 on the 50th anniversary of the Illinois YMCA. Besides exerting leadership in the Y for so many years, Professor Parr was also a distinguished chemist and an educational statesman. In recommending that he be memorialized in the new building a 1937 YMCA brochure stated: “Two institutions of worthy achievement bear the imprint of the life and character of Professor S. W. Parr. Through forty years he was connected with the Chemistry Department of the University of Illinois. His life as a teacher, his notable research in Chemical Engineering particularly in coal, metallurgy and water treatment, and his abiding interest in his students—undergraduate and graduate—all give a high place among the honored men of ‘Illinois.’ The University of Illinois lives and serves in a nobler way today because of the work, life and ideals of this worthy man.
“No friend of Professor S. W. Parr could know him long without coming to realize his high esteem for the University of Illinois Young Men’s Christian Association. To it, through all his years, he gave his unstinted devotion. From [p. 21] the first weeks on the campus in 1878 when he joined an Association Bible Class to those many years he served as Chairman of its Board of Directors he saw in the student YMCA an organization meeting the practical needs of students—employment, rooms, social life, and a movement which influenced the spiritual ideals of the campus—building men of character.”
Following Adam Millar and William Dillon, who served the Y as General Secretaries from 1897 to 1900, four effective General Secretaries served in succession from 1900 to 1912: Philip Conard, Neil McMillan Jr., Dwight Weist, and William McKnight. Warren E. Durstine, Y President in 1895-1896, served as Secretary in 1896-1897. He was paid $40 per month and thus became the first paid staff member of the University Y. This was a period when student officers and the Y Cabinet came to play a more important role in the functioning of the Y. It was also a period when much thought was given to the relationship of the YMCA with other organizations.
Loring H. Provine, for many years Professor of Architectural Engineering and a staunch friend of the YMCA, recalls that the YMCA and the YWCA used to take outings together. Usually these were on foot, but occasionally the members would board an open-air streetcar and travel to West End Park in Champaign. Professor Provine also remembers the year he and eight or ten other students lived in the Y residence, a frame house on the corner of Wright and John Street, Curry Cottage. He recalls, “We used to get up at 6:30 a.m. when reveille was played by a retired missionary and we had a housemother, which was unheard of in those days, to take care of us. No meals were served in the building. We ate in the dining room on the ground floor of the University Hall, and in those days there were no business centers nearby. We had to walk downtown for pencils, books, and paper. On Sunday evenings we went to different towns to hold services and in the mornings we had faculty men talk at services on the third floor of University Hall. There were no campus churches at that time. Every Spring the Y held a great big open house which was quite a social event. One time we took over the second floor of Morrill (Morrow) Hall and had booths and stunts and programs. The YMCA was quite an effective organization.”
Professor Provine was not the only one to attest to the effectiveness of the YMCA. Through the years both faculty and students of the College of Agriculture have been strong supporters of the Y and its program. During the school year of 1904-05 the Illinois Agriculturist, a monthly publication put out by the students of the College of Agriculture, ran a feature on the YMCA and its meaning to the students. The article characterized the Y as “The one comprehensive student organization for the men whose activities reach out in a score of ways to meet the needs of the male students of the institution.”
In enumerating and discussing the many things the Y did, the Agriculturist article mentioned the employment bureau, the student handbook, the listing of available rooms, meeting and guiding new students during the first few days, the Fall reception, the stag social, College Night, the Post-exam Jubilee, and Bible study classes. Summing up, the article said the purpose of the Y was to [p. 22] “Befriend and help men who need friends and help, to apply in practical college life the principles of the Christian faith, to stimulate men to develop a well proportioned all-round manhood, to train men for intelligent, aggressive Christian work, to bring to bear upon the university life a vigorous, healthful, religious influence—in short, to prepare an army of men to go out from the institution to become the religious and spiritual leaders in their communities as they will there become the business, social, and intellectual leaders. This is the mission of the Young Men’s Christian Association.”
In 1903, remarking about a bulletin issued by the University YMCA explaining its program and the status of its work, The Christian Advocate editorialized: “Features of the work which are set forth in this bulletin show an aggressiveness that was unheard of in state institutions a few years ago. Before the University opened in the Fall a cordial correspondence of welcome was had with 300 prospective students. All trains bearing new students were met at adjacent towns and the new students met and welcomed before they left the train at Urbana, the seat of the University. A complete register of available rooms and boarding places was ready for consultation by new men. An edition of 1,500 handbooks containing pertinent facts about the customs, organizations, faculties, and student activities at the University was distributed free. Social events of welcome were arranged for entering men and a joint reception was held for men and women. Upper classmen made frequent friendly calls on all the Freshmen in their rooms establishing cordial relations and creating a basis for further personal religious effort. Certainly this activity, together with the total program of the Y, was a counterweight to the bitter class rivalries and fights of the period. Positions affording opportunity for financial help were found for 100 men. No less than thirty-three voluntary Bible classes are following systematic courses in Bible study. Six other classes are studying foreign missions. From the time the college year opened ’til the issuing of the Bulletin there have been no less than twenty-four professed conversions.”
The editorial concluded by remarking that YMCAs are conducting similar work at other large universities but that “in few cases is it carried out with such signal success as has characterized the efforts at the University of Illinois.”
After much discussion and internal debate extending over a period of years, University Chapel was abolished by acting president Burrill in the Fall of 1894. According to historian Allen Nevins this spurred YMCA activity. But the Y was already experiencing expansion and growth. It is doubtful if the abolition of chapel had very much effect. Nine years earlier, in 1885, student Foster North challenged the authority of the University to require chapel attendance. He was expelled for non-attendance, sought an Attorney General’s opinion, received an adverse ruling, and years later when the University tendered him a degree refused to accept it. Instead he wrote a book entitled “The Struggle for Religious Liberty in the University of Illinois.”
Though unreliable indicators of what an organization is really like, figures and statistics do serve to measure the extent of activity and the rate of growth. [p. 23] Furthermore, in the case of the Y, there is evidence that the Y was a dynamic and relevant organization during a period of rapid University growth—1888 to 1908. In 1902 the Fall Reception for new students, held by the YMCA and YWCA in the Armory, was attended by 900 persons. In 1901 there were 600 inquiries for information; in 1903 there were 1400. The Employment Committee assisted 73 men to find jobs in 1902; in 1903, 130 were assisted. During the same period membership increased from 367 to 493, enrollment in Bible classes from 242 to 325. In 1904 there were 660 members, and more than 40 Bible classes had an enrollment of 475. In 1914 there were 1126 members, making the University of Illinois YMCA the largest student YMCA in the country. The Y’s Rooming Bureau helped 1,000 students find rooms. But Bible classes had been reduced to twelve with an attendance of 150 students. Other activities were proving to be more appealing.
In 1902 the fifth Christian association was established in the University Community, the Railroad YMCA in Urbana, in connection with the Big Four shops. It functioned until the late forties or early fifties. The first Secretary was Theodore Coughlin, a frequent visitor and guest of the University Y. Reverend Clarence Hall worked with the Railroad Y for ten years, from 1920 to 1930.
President Roosevelt (Theodore) had some good words for student YMCAs. In 1903 the Daily Illini quoted him: “The work of the YMCA has grown so much among college students because it has tried not to dwarf any of the impulses of the young, vigorous man, but to guide him aright. It has sought not to make his development one-sided, not to prevent his being a man, but see that he is in the fullest sense a man, a good man.”
Samuel Parr shared these beliefs. And he was also a man of action. Without his intense interest, and that of Thomas Burrill, his leadership, his position of influence in the University and above all his willingness to devote hours and days of his time to the cause of the YMCA, its history for more than forty years might have been much less exciting and devoid of the innovative quality which came to characterize the University of Illinois YMCA.
When Freshmen appeared on the campus of the Illinois Industrial University in the Fall of 1884 they were given a little booklet which said:
“Greeting to all new students. As you enter our midst we bid you welcome and present to you this handbook hoping it may prove useful in many ways. While you remain among us may you find us companions in your sorrow, sharers in your joy, and your friends at all times. And when in time you leave these halls, we trust you will feel that you have found here a home where your days have been not less pleasant than profitable and where ties have been formed that shall bind us together here and hereafter. Hoping thus, we are yours fraternally, The Christian Associations.”
Samuel Parr is credited with the handbook idea. Within a decade many [p. 24] student YMCAs followed suit. John R. Mott remarked about receiving a handbook when he enrolled at Cornell.
This was probably the first joint venture of the YMCA and the “new” YWCA, the latter having been reorganized in March of that year. The book told students about admission to the University and where to go, explained the organization and programs of both the YMCA and YWCA, told about using the library and receiving mail. It contained a street directory and a church directory, a list of University buildings and their locations and the names of all the Professors and their University and local addresses. Times of meeting of the Literary Society and open days for the Art Gallery and Museums were also included along with a University calendar for the year. Illinois Central and Wabash timetables were included along with a streetcar schedule informing the student that cars left Urbana and Champaign every half-hour from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fare from either city to the University was five cents. The handbook was printed by the Gazette Steam Press, Champaign, Illinois.
In 1885 the handbook was expanded and included the topics for Bible study for the whole year. These dealt with “Christian qualities” and in successive meetings considered meekness, mercy, patience, temperance, love, faith, hope, and charity.
Besides giving students useful information, handbooks invited students to join the Y and did some advertising for other student activities. This admonition appeared in the 1891 book: “Are you a Christian? Do not delay coming in with us. We need your help now. If not a Christian, dear friend, now is the time to take the stand for truth and right before you become absorbed in the duties of college life.” Students were also encouraged to subscribe to the college newspaper: “The Illini is the college paper and is published every two weeks during the college year. It has attained a high standard among college journals and is heartily supported by the students as it is an index of their college and voices their sentiments and wishes. Every student should subscribe for it.”
The 1892 handbook informed students that the gleeclub was under the leadership of Professor Parr. Though the handbook stated that football had come into popular favor here only during the past two years, it did not neglect the college yell:
“Rah! Hoo-rah! Zip, Boom, Ah!
Hip-zoo! Rah-zoo!
Jimmy, Blow Your Bazoo!
Ipzidyiki, U. of I.!
Champaign!”
The book also mentioned another service for students—storage of baggage until they found a room and got settled. By 1893 the handbook had grown much larger, partly because it contained more advertising. Another college yell had been introduced:
[p. 25] “Yah yah yah kee,
yah yah yah kee,
Boom a langer, boom a langer
U of I.”
A Banjo Club and Mandolin and Guitar Club had been formed, so the handbook stated.
The 1898 handbook had a place for a class schedule, included a calendar, and invited attention to the Lake Geneva Student Conference. It informed students that “Champaign has the free delivery system and students can have their mail delivered at their boarding places by leaving orders at the postoffice. Urbana has no free delivery.” For many years the I Book carried a table of Illinois athletic records. Early ones for the pole vault were nine feet, one and one-half inches; mile run, five and three-quarters minutes; and shotput, thirty-three feet eight and one-half inches. By 1905 these had moved up to eleven feet, nine inches; four minutes, twenty-three and two-fifths seconds; and forty-six feet, respectively. Other events for which records were listed were the ball throw; hop, step, and jump; and three-legged race.
The 1940-41 handbook contained the “Illini Code of Sportsmanship.” It listed the things a “true Illini Sportsman” will either do or not do. He will not hiss or boo, utter abusive or irritating remarks, or attempt to rattle a pitcher or a player at the free throw line. He will accept the decisions of officials without question, follow the Golden Rule and “win without boasting, lose without excuses.”
By 1955 the University had further developed its program for new students and had provided information and guidance so it no longer seemed feasible to use the Y’s limited resources to publish an I Book.
The I Books were good publicity for the Y and for the campus religious foundations through the prominent treatment they received in the book. Advertising helped offset the cost of free distribution.
In 1865 a young man freshly graduated from Illinois State Normal University came to Urbana as Superintendent of Schools. In 1868 the Urbana schools closed early for lack of funds and Thomas Jonathan Burrill accepted a place on the faculty of the new university. He was hired primarily to relieve Dr. Gregory of mathematics instruction. Mathematics did not long contain his energies. Charles M. Moss, Professor of Classics and a colleague, says of Burrill’s early years: “He taught most of the day, was horticulturist to the experiment station, planted with his own hands or saw to the planting of most of the trees on the campus after he had laid it out for treatment, wrote reports, lectured here and there, served on innumerable committees, collected specimens up and down the state, and lest some remnant of his time should be unoccupied, was charged by [p. 26] the Board with the sale of a pair of mules whose labors on the South Farm showed that they were not so able to stand the strenuous life as he was. His professorship began at sunup and lasted indefinitely and included everything that needed doing.”
In this description of his rigorous academic life Professor Moss neglected to mention Burrill’s activities in the YMCA dating from the advice and encouragement he offered in the formative years of the early ’70s to his long service as Chairman of the Board of the Y from 1900-1913. In Fields of Rich Toil Richard Moores says of Burrill, “The force and unanimity of the praise for Burrill not only at the time of his death but throughout his long life indicate that he was an extraordinarily good man. He was not, of course, the paragon of virtue described by his friends.” Moores quotes one of his friends as saying “He was the greatest interpreter of the character of Christ,” and another as saying “Biologically speaking he was a monster of goodness.” Moores remarks that though Burrill was narrowly moral he had a “liberality of spirit that inspired the affection of everyone who knew the man. . . . He was willing to talk to students or to fellow faculty members at any hour of the day or night and for almost any length of time.”
Some insight into Burrill’s character and his feelings about the YMCA are revealed in his correspondence. In 1901 replying to a letter critical of the University for permitting hazing he said: “Proper spirit well diffused in the student body is always the best dependence in government. This is much more a matter of personal influence and attitude than it is official organization and regulation.”
In 1903 the Reverend Harry Willard of Walton, Illinois, wrote to Burrill inquiring about the state of religion on the campus. In his letter he raised several specific questions. Replying, Burrill said in part: “The entire list of students for the year foots up 2,225. Of these about one-half are church members. So far as known to me, there have been this year thirty conversions or decisions for the higher life. In answer to your fourth question, ‘What inducements are held out toward the Christian life?’ I will say there is nothing in a formal way, the whole tendency and spirit of the institution, however, is favorable to that and you will see by the enclosed literature what is done by the young people’s Christian associations.” Burrill had no very good answer to the Reverend’s question “What would be the probability of an unsaved person being converted during one year’s attendance?” He did remark, however, that Sunday afternoon chapel services attracted from 800 to 900 people and that regular Sunday morning meetings of the YMCA attracted about 300.
In 1909 he answered a letter critical of the Y for installing billiard and pool tables by saying, “Commonly it is true this form of sport or game is associated with bad and demoralizing conditions.” He told the writer that as Chairman of the Board he had voted for the tables as an experiment and that he feared no injury to the young men while playing in the Y. He conceded, however, that the effect on their later life was still not known and asked the writer to observe and communicate with him if he noticed any bad effects. This ability to invite a critic to join in assessment of the critic’s complaint no doubt stood Burrill in good [p. 27] stead during his administrative life in the University.
In an earlier day, November, 1876, The Student came out against billiards. It editorialized “Some years ago the YMCA associations in the country sanctioned the introduction of billiard tables into their rooms thinking to make pleasant and give them the attractions presented to young men in other places where the influences were known to be evil. The year had scarcely passed when it was found that the effect was far different from that hoped for. Young men learned the game but did not find the excitement under such influences which make it exhilarating and so sought other and worse places. Parents have in many cases provided billiard tables for their sons in the hope of keeping them from the evil associations of the game but without avail. Will not such be the effect if the game is sanctioned and encouraged by the colleges. It may do for Yale and Princeton, but will it do for the general run of colleges? The facts of experience seem to show that we cannot hope for good effect from college billiards.”
In 1909 Burrill received a letter from Julia Durfee Smith of Hoopeston complaining about the Y using University buildings and stationery while certain other organizations were precluded from the use of University buildings. Burrill answered: “This YMCA is accomplishing a magnificent work of the highest importance to the young men who are attending the University. Young men of all creeds and denominations have the free use of the facilities of the new building and many who are not members are taking advantage of them with no discomfort to anybody.”
Burrill conducted his business affairs with a keen eye and a concern for every penny to be spent. Some hint of this is contained in a letter to Joseph A. Morrow, University Superintendent of Buildings, complaining that the heating bill for the YMCA should not have been $500 but should have been $411.12 due to the fact that heat was not supplied until November 9 instead of October 1, the date the billing commenced. He asked the Superintendent to submit this matter to the Comptroller for his consideration.
His feelings about alcohol are exemplified in an open letter to Mayor George W. Hubbard of Urbana following a speech the Mayor made in 1909 against the establishment of “drinking saloons or substitutes for them” in Urbana. In his letter Burrill said the Mayor’s speech made “assurance doubly sure that Urbana will be freed from the last vestige of the rum traffic curse and its attendant evils.” With an eye on the preservation of property values he said, “Your speech was easily worth $1,000 a minute.” He concluded his praise of the speech by saying, “Urbana is destined to be preeminently a city of homes, a place of fine attractiveness, of safe sanitation, of civic and social renown, of rich culture, of inviting morality, of stimulating educational and religious activity. This is the Urbana of the future.”
Burrill worked tirelessly for the Y during his Chairmanship of the Board. With such a man as Chairman, with “Powerhouse” Parr heading important committees and immersing himself in problems of the Y, with Ira O. Baker playing a substantial but less glamorous role, with men like Thomas Arkle Clark and [p. 28] Professor Provine willing to involve themselves in Y affairs and with the beginning of a line of capable General Secretaries, these middle years of the Parr era were indeed great ones for the Y. By 1913 membership had climbed to 1,066, said to be the largest paid membership of any Young Men’s Christian Association anywhere in the world. During that same period membership in the YWCA climbed to 516. That recruiting new members was taken seriously is evidenced by the efforts which the Y made to contact prospects. A religious census was conducted year after year to gain some idea of the denominational and Christian preferences of the student body. Vigorous membership campaigns were conducted. Letters were sent to applicants, not thanking them for joining the Y but congratulating them and telling them they had been accepted for membership. They were invited to a meeting to get their membership card. It was not mailed to them.
The University of Illinois until fairly late in its career did not feel any great responsibility for supplying housing to students or for helping those in need find jobs. Yet young men and young women came by the thousands, most needing rooms and many needing jobs if they were to remain in school. To the credit of the University YMCA, it sensed these needs and did something about them. Consulting the Y’s list of rooms came to be standard procedure for students who did not join fraternities or otherwise find rooms. Apparently such lists were maintained from the time the Y began meeting incoming Freshmen for orientation and help in 1876. Though help in finding jobs was undoubtedly given during the early years, the year 1900 is earmarked as the time when the Y commenced an employment service on a serious basis. After that date every annual report of the Y included figures about the help given. In 1906, for example, General Secretary Dwight Weist reported, “The Association Employment Bureau is a prominent department of the work and is especially of value at the beginning of the school year. Although the cities of Champaign and Urbana do not present many opportunities for ambitious young men who wish to work themselves through college, yet the Director of the Employment Bureau reports for 1906-07 that 190 men were helped to find employment. The total amount of earnings was accounted for as nearly as possible and the estimation is $7,000 was earned.” In 1908 General Secretary W. A. KcKnight reported, “Many men are enabled to complete the University through the assistance given them by this department who could not otherwise do so. Many men are directed to permanent work, yet a larger number to odd jobs. An attempt is made to secure reports indicating the money value of the work done. The report secured this year shows that 250 men were helped to secure employment with a total estimated money value of $10,000.”
Mic Coldwell, recalling the work of the employment program during the ’20s, said: “I had charge of that program several years following the S.A.T.C. [p. 29] days of WW I. Literally hundreds of students used to line up in the old “Green Hut”—southwest corner of Wright and Green—for jobs at thirty cents an hour, and it was a cause for rejoicing when we got it up to thirty-five cents per hour—washing windows, waxing floors, cleaning classroom blackboards, gardening—you name it. Most desirable of all jobs was washing dishes (pearl diving) or waiting tables for one’s meals. These jobs enabled many students to stay in school. I recall one young man who was sent to the homes of Dean T. A. Clark and Dr. H. B. Ward—to wax floors. That young man wrote me later, after he had become a Sales Executive with one of the TV stations in Chicago, that he was helped to land the Johnson Wax advertising account because he had used their product for two years in waxing the floors of the residences of Dean Clark and Professor Ward.
“Some topflight students were responsible for the Employment Bureau in their undergraduate days and some at least became distinguished alumni. There comes to mind Stanley P. Farwell, ’07 of Chicago. It runs in my mind that the Dean of Medicine, Columbia University, W. C. Rappleye, ’15 was one of these. There was Willard O. Wilson ’17 who was with Chrysler in Detroit. A. A. Arnold ’21, patent attorney in NYC who I knew my first year at Illinois and who was President of the University YMCA. I can recall Dr. Walter E. Bonness ’23, now in Ventura, California, and a retired Commander in the Navy; Paul McCluer ’22 of San Clemente, retired advertising executive; the late William F. Gerdes, Jr. of Quincy who was a member of our ’24 Y Board of Trustees; and Adolph A. Klautsch ’32, now with General Motors. Yes, I remember them well and they did a great job in their Volunteer Service for students through the UI YMCA. I think it was in the mid-thirties that the University itself took over the Employment Bureau. It would be safe to assume that literally hundreds, perhaps thousands, of alumni will recall with warm appreciation their relationships with the University YMCA and its Employment Bureau during the sixty years it was a part of the program of the Association.”
Subsequent reports show that the work of the Employment Bureau grew until in 1932 the University of Illinois established a student employment service and took over the function. It also hired Dwight F. Bracken, the Y staff member who supervised the service so efficiently for the Y. Though this was inevitable, and the Y leadership understood, there were anxious thoughts about the future of the program with the University where concern for the individual would be less and the whole program would become impersonal.
Thus the YMCA spawned the University Employment Service and the University Housing Division. These activities, especially student housing, would no doubt have been born without the intervention of the Y, but the Y led the way.
From the beginning, Bible study was an important program in the University YMCA. The thoroughness with which the classes were organized, the [p. 30] preparation of materials including printed enrollment and attendance cards made up to cover a five-year period for each individual and the covenant which teachers were asked to sign all bespeak the attention which was given. The covenant stated: “Realizing the vital importance of an adequate knowledge of the Bible in the completion of a general education, in the foundation of character, and especially in determining man’s relation to our Lord Jesus Christ, I covenant with the Young Men’s Christian Association and with God to undertake the leadership with his guidance of a class for the systematic study of the Bible. I do further covenant that I shall be diligent in my preparation for such leadership in the technical knowledge of the Bible and in the cultivation of my personal spiritual life.”
Reporting that 705 men were enrolled in Bible classes for the year 1906-07, the General Secretary went on to say, “The movement at Illinois has been leading the colleges and universities of the country for several years. Students, faculty, alumni and friends testify to the influence of this one department of the Association in practical training for lives of usefulness and a religious education. The Bible study department for many student generations at Illinois has filled a place in college life entirely unique in its relationships.” Sixty-seven classes were organized that year. Bible study rallies were held to secure enrollment. Study groups averaged about 10 men. Meetings were held in student rooming houses, fraternities, and in other convenient places. Most of the leaders were students.
Despite this bright picture portrayed by the Secretary he intimated that there might be problems: “The Bible study work at Illinois has outgrown student supervision. It is necessary that a Bible study secretary be placed at the head of the work. One-third of the men at the University could easily be reached for Bible study groups if the Association could properly increase the secretarial force.”
That there were difficulties is indicated by the Secretary’s report for the following year: “For several years the University of Illinois has been known almost literally around the world as the University where such phenomenal things were being done in Bible study. For the past two or three years at least its reputation has not been nearly so good at home. We would expect the evil effects of overemphasis of numbers and superficial work in the groups under student leadership to be felt first in the institution having the greatest enrollment. Fully 150 men refused to enroll in classes this year because of their experience last year and influenced many others to the same decision. Of the 500 men who enrolled in the groups outside the fraternities only 200 remained in the classes two months or more.” He attributed this falling off to lack of preparation by the student leaders saying, “They were simply not equipped for this work and made as bad a mess of it as Peter would have made if he had attempted to lead The Twelve.”
Apparently Bible classes held in the fraternities were more successful than the others, due the Secretary felt, to the fact that a higher number of faculty [p. 31] members were involved as leaders. Dean Thomas Arkle Clark and Professor E. C. Hayes were lauded by the Secretary for their work. He pointed particularly to the success of a class taught by Professor J. W. Jenks on “Social Significance of the Teachings of Jesus.” Certainly Professor Jenks’ course was in accord with the avowed purpose of the Y itself, to make religion a reality and show that it has social significance.
Despite variation in the quality of leadership and fluctuation in numbers, Bible study classes persisted for a long time and were a strong feature of the Y program during Henry Wilson’s secretaryship. Perhaps Bible study socials and Valentine parties for both men and women in the study groups helped keep the program operative. A list of those attending the Valentine party in 1907 includes exactly 46 men and 46 women. Was this a happy accident?
The movement out of which university YMCAs grew, the early student Christian associations, was strongly committed to missionary work. In the early decades the approach was highly idealistic and the main objective was to rescue lost souls from non-Christian belief and bring them into the Christian faith. Out of the strength of this feeling and philosophy grew the Student Volunteer Movement, a movement with the modest objective of winning the whole world to Christianity in a fairly short space of time—one generation. The announcement for the fifth convention of the Student Volunteers held in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1906 stated, “The greatest gathering of students known on the American continent. 3,000 delegates expected. 500 institutions of learning to be represented. 200 missionaries representing 40 mission fields to be present. The greatest speakers of Christendom will present the various themes. A four-days panoramic view of the world-wide extension of Christianity that would consume years of study and research.”
A “Handbook of the Missionary Departments of the Christian Association, University of Illinois, 1907-08,” put out by the YMCA and YWCA, listed seventeen people in the mission field and the dates on which they had sailed from the United States. At the University of Illinois six clubs were organized so students in the University could keep in touch with the world’s religious problems. These were the Af-Tang Club, the Nippon Club, the Celestial Club, the Oriental Club, the Occidental Club, and the Reading Club. Theme for the Reading Club was “The Evangelization of the World in this Generation.”
In 1905 the University YMCA reported that thirty-one students were preparing themselves for the foreign field—eighteen men and thirteen women—sixty-five men were engaged in mission study under student leadership. With the emphasis on missionary work which existed when the Y was formed and the response which it made in the early years and during the Parr era it is not surprising to find a strong and continuous growth within the Y, not only of missionary preparation but of international student concern as well.
[p. 32] In 1909 a committee was formed to plan an extensive program of service among the youth of Champaign and Urbana. Hal Colvin explains that the idea behind it was twofold: to be a force for character building in the youth and to provide leadership and training experience for young men in the YMCA. The boys were organized into gym classes and teams, coached by Y student members and by varsity athletes whom the committee recruited. Games and tournaments were arranged; one of the most popular events was the annual Spring track meet. This activity enlisted the interest of local groups and townspeople and continued to be a part of the Y program for many years. Furthermore, it led to other involvement of Y members. For example, by 1923 the annual report listed seventeen Y members leading boys’ clubs, forty-nine doing playground work, and six working with high school boys. Colvin, who served on the Y staff during 1919-20 and 1923-25, before returning to the staff in 1961 after a long stint with the national movement, devoted most of his time to strengthening this program.
That the Y was not all seriousness and was willing to reach a larger audience through devices other than Bible classes is well illustrated by the history of an event labeled “The Post-Exam Jubilee.” Printed on the program for the 1904 Jubilee was the information that “The Post-Exam Jubilee is an outgrowth of College Night which was given by members of the Young Men’s Christian Association for six years after the first semester examinations. Last year the program was open to competition and all of the organizations of men in the University were asked to submit a plan for fifteen minutes entertainment. The same plan was followed this year and will be in the future. The best stunts are chosen by a committee made up of one man representing each organization. The names of the representatives of the successful organizations are printed on the back of this program. It is hoped the Monday night beginning the second semester will be reserved hereafter for this Jubilee.”
Credit for starting the Jubilee goes to Philip A. Conard, General Secretary of the Y from 1900-04. The first one was held in 1903. Conard later became a missionary in South America and receipts from the Jubilee were sent to him for furtherance of the missionary cause.
As samples of the offerings, The Hermean Preps presented “A Stale Piece of Spring Chicken.” The Phi Kaps presented the “Great U and I Train Robbery,” and the Phi Psis, Betas, and Delts combined to present “The Prickly Heat Octet.” In 1912 the Chemistry Club presented a lecture on alcohol, Sigma Chi presented a ragtime roughhouse and the Kappa Sigs, “A Celebration in 1914 When Champaign Goes Wet—As a Prohibitionist Sees It.” Whether or not the acts became more sophisticated is difficult to answer though “Follies of Hamlet, 1914” presented by the Iris Club, “The Kappa Ziegfield Follies of 1913” presented by Kappa [p. 33] Sigma, and the “Mexican Revolution” presented by College Hall Dormitory have a more sophisticated ring. But in 1919 Alpha Chi Rho presented “Wild Nell or A Tale of the Western Plains,” the cast of characters including Wild Nell, Sunshine Sally, Handsome Harry, Sitting Bull and Standing Cow. Most eye-catching in the 1922 Jubilee program folder is the movie advertising: Will Rogers in “An Unwilling Hero” and Harold Lloyd in “Number Please.”
Not billed as a light or humorous event, but striking one that way in retrospect was a lecture which Colonel Gustave Fechet delivered for a number of years in the early 1900s telling about the American Indians of the West and how he captured Sitting Bull. For some reason or other these lectures were given under the auspices of the YMCA. The admission charge may have had something to do with it. An announcement stated that “Plans for Colonel Fechet’s lecture on the Capture of Sitting Bull to be given in the Armory on next Thursday evening are going on apace and that the address will be one of the events of the Spring goes without saying.” The public was informed that a “Real live Indian” had been contacted and that he would probably be brought to the University and circulated about the campus prior to the lecture. The community was assured that “the story will be graphic and thrilling enough to suit the most excitement-loving mind.” Colonel Fechet, for many years head of the Military Department at the University, was in his earlier years involved in the Indian campaigns in the far West.
Among the interesting communications received when Harold Reinhart invited past Presidents of the University YMCA to send in their recollections of the Y and its work for the benefit of the Centennial committee was one received from P. J. “Pete” Nilsen, President of the Y during his senior year 1914-15.
“My roommate and I had our living and study room on the second floor but slept in the third floor dormitory. Discipline was satisfactory and observance of rules and regulations was taken for granted. Coed visitations were confined to the first floor lounge. My good friend, Lloyd C. Douglas, who later became a renowned author was Executive Secretary and an inspiration to the students. He preached a short but challenging sermon in the lounge each Sunday. I’ll never forget two of them—with subjects, Kindness That Kills and Cruelty That Heals. He used short pithy sentences and drove home his points. He was a great guy indeed. The Y had no swimming pool, gym or other physical equipment for exercise. It functioned only as a friend of students and exerted a strong religious influence over them. Students were very loyal to the University. There were no such things as rowdy protest demonstrations. Discipline in or out of class was no problem. Drinking and smoking were rare. Drugs were nonexistent. No student cars and few faculty cars. Boys and girls dressed conservatively. Sex was strictly taboo and caused no campus problems. Many students had to work to meet expenses, so between study and work there was very little time or money [p. 34] for foolishness. I delivered The Illini and washed dishes in a fraternity.” There are evidences that the University was not as puritanical as “Pete” Nilsen indicates, but as one of the students who had “little time or money for foolishness,” he no doubt had little time to examine the habits of students with whom he was not immediately involved.
So, through nearly fifty years of student life at the University of Illinois Professor Parr played an understanding, sympathetic and incisive role. As a dynamic leader in his earlier years and as a strong and effective Board Chairman in his later years, it is fair to say that his influence was stronger and his contribution greater than that of any other non-staff member.
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