The Recent Era: 1958–1997

4.1 Introduction

[p. 103] In 1959, speaking of the rising generation of college students, University of California president Clark Kerr predicted that “employers will love this generation. They aren’t going to press many grievances. . . . There aren’t going to be any riots.”¹ As it turned out, of course, he was wrong. The generation of students that took their places in colleges and universities across the country in the late 50s and 60s would engage in widespread political protest and dissent, much of it directed against their own institutions. Especially would they attack Kerr’s technocratic vision of the university as a “multiversity,” where students were to be understood as “products” and faculty as “entrepreneurs,” with each institution as a kind of factory or “great machine” which “turns out its countless new pieces of knowledge . . . with little thought for their consequences.”²

Two of the most important groups at the forefront of the new student activism were each founded in the spring of 1960: the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which worked mainly in the south on civil rights issues, and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which worked mainly in the north on issues related to higher education and the war in Vietnam. Each of these groups was inspired by a growing idealism among people of all ages, one which rejected the institutionalized racism, militarism, and empty comforts of an unjust social order. Much of the spirit behind this new idealism was articulated in 1962 in SDS’s Port Huron Statement, a document which brilliantly captured students’ vision of a better society and their criticisms of American life and institutions.³

The authors of the Port Huron Statement described themselves as “looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit,” the complacency of their privileged upbringings shattered by the twin threats of racial bigotry and a Cold War built on an arms race and the specter of the nuclear bomb. As they looked at the world, they saw a set of paradoxes: the belief in equality in the face of racism; the proclaimed peaceful intentions of their government in the face [p. 104] of an escalating arms race; advances in technology and an increase in meaningless work; material abundance and hunger; the need for “revolutionary leadership” and the existence of a national political stalemate; and finally, their own sense of urgency in the face of the prevailing view that “there is no viable alternative to the present.”

The authors of the Port Huron Statement, like the majority of students who were actively involved in the University YMCA, were mostly white and middle class, preparing themselves for various professional and managerial careers. In addition to the paradoxes listed above, a good deal of their discomfort was tied to their lack of enthusiasm for entering the white collar work-world. In 1951, C. Wright Mills had described the white collar middle class in less than flattering terms:

Estranged from community and society in a context of distrust and manipulation; alienated from work and, on the personality market, from self; expropriated of individual rationality, and politically apathetic—these are the new little people, the unwilling vanguard of modern society.⁴

This description struck a chord, not only with those active in SDS, but with a growing number of middle class students. Borrowing heavily from Mills, the authors of the Port Huron Statement painted a picture of American middle-class society filled with loneliness, estrangement, silence, apathy, hypocrisy, manipulation, desperation and isolation. It was a bleak portrait.

Turning their eyes to their own campuses, the authors of the Port Huron Statement found that their fellow students mirrored the views and faults of those in the broader society. They described students as being withdrawn from public life, having rejected idealism, hope, and the possibility of change in exchange for the “cheerful emptiness” of a private life of comfort and mediocrity. This state of affairs was related to the isolating effects of modern industrial society. The authors argued, echoing both Mills and John Dewey, that isolation in American life had given rise to a “democracy without publics,” where the great mass of people had become “structurally remote and psychologically hesitant with respect [p. 105] to democratic institutions.”⁵

While much of the problem in the authors’ view was psychological, they argued that it was also structural. Widespread political apathy was based not only on a subjective sense of powerlessness, but also on the “objective reality” of a “structural separation of people from power, from relevant knowledge, from pinnacles of decision making.” “The American political system,” they wrote, “is not the democratic model of which its glorifiers speak. In actuality it frustrates democracy by confusing the individual citizen, paralyzing policy discussion, and consolidating the irresponsible power of military and business interests.”⁶ Largely to blame for this was a party system which produced an “organized political stalemate” by failing to encourage discussion at the local level of national and international issues, divesting minorities from full political power, and submitting to the influence of private business lobbying.

Labor, peace, and religious groups, the authors felt, deserved to share the blame for the frustration of democracy. Bogged down in method and technique, they lacked vision. In particular, the authors felt that they lacked a vision of how the building of a “participatory democracy” could be the solution to both structural political stalemate and personal apathy and alienation.

Much of the spirit of the Port Huron Statement was reflected in a statement made to new Student Cabinet members of the YMCA at the University of Illinois during one of the early years of the 1958-1997 era. “There are some who believe our responsibility this year is even more serious and challenging,” these Cabinet members were told.

Sensitive prophets of the day have intimated the depth of the problem. They suggest we are living in a time of crisis between a world that is dying and another yet to be born. The insecurity of our lives, the confusion, frustration, and cynicism which haunt nearly all are expressions of a crisis which has profound dimensions. There are many voices which seek to respond to this condition, yet students are fed up with halfway measures and replies that satisfy but half of our hunger for truth and a worthy idea for which we can live. Deep within [p. 106] we are aware that we need a purpose in life beyond immediate cares and worries and conventional desires. The ideal of taking a college degree, getting married and settled, having a dependable job, making lots of money is not enough. It is a timid ideal.⁷

One of the “sensitive prophets” proclaiming the death of a world was C. Wright Mills, who concluded in the early 1950s that

The uneasiness, the malaise of our time, is due to this root fact: in our politics and economy, in family life and religion—in practically every sphere of our existence—the certainties of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have disintegrated or been destroyed and, at the same time, no new sanctions or justifications for the new routines we live, and must live, have taken hold.⁸

The story of the University YMCA in the 1958-1997 era is a story of the gradual death of old ways and views. But it is also the story of the birth of a new—and to some extent, profoundly different—Association. While the effects of the two World Wars produced ripples of change in the University YMCA’s mission and work, the events of the sixties, seventies, and eighties produced a great tide of change which swept much of the familiar character of the old institution away. Yet even so, an important part of the spirit of the Association survived.

In this chapter, I review the changes and developments in each of the three distinct periods of the recent era. The first period, from 1958-1973, was a time marked by an embrace of religious pluralism, the opening of membership and governance roles to women, and a vigorous search for meaning in a changing world. It included some of the best years in the University YMCA’s life and work, when it aspired to be the “intellectual religious center” of the campus. In the second period, from 1973-1984, the Association dropped nearly all of its religious work and shifted much of its focus away from campus to the provision of social services to youth in Champaign-Urbana and surrounding communities. In the final period, from 1984-1997, the focus returned to the campus, as [p. 107] the Association tried to position itself as a center for dialogue, reflection, and action on important educational, political, and spiritual issues and concerns.

4.2 Mission and Work

1958-1973

Just a few years into the 1958-1973 period, the official statement of purpose for the University YMCA, which had been written and adopted in 1923, was replaced. The old statement was firmly centered on the Christian faith. It reflected the confidence of an Association sure of its role and work, and sharp and unwavering in its focus. It declared that

The purpose of this organization shall be: (1) To lead students to faith in God through Jesus Christ. (2) To lead them into membership and service in the Christian Church. (3) To promote their growth in Christian faith and character, especially through the study of the Bible and prayer. (4) To influence them to devote themselves in united effort with all Christians to making the will of Christ effective in human society, and to extending the Kingdom of God throughout the world.⁹

The new statement, which was adopted in February of 1961, reflected a new, less certain path for the Association, marked by an openness to religious pluralism and a wide search for meaning. It declared that

The purpose of the Young Men’s Christian Association of the University of Illinois is to provide an atmosphere congenial to an unlimited search for religious meaning and to make clear the meaning and relevance of the Christian heritage to student and faculty members as they face their daily responsibilities in the University and in society.¹⁰

Stirrings of change in the mission and direction of the University YMCA began to surface in the mid 1950s. In the spring of 1954, the Board of Directors created a Program Study Committee charged with reviewing the Association’s purpose and objectives. [p. 108] While the Committee’s report, presented to the Board on September 27, 1954, affirmed the continuing relevance of the existing purpose statement, it emphasized the need of the Association to develop a “world outlook, a concept of inclusiveness rather than exclusiveness.”¹¹

Two years later, more serious calls for change were voiced. In September of 1956, General Secretary Pete Ingalls declared to the Board that “too much of what we are doing is simply carrying on something that has been done in the past.”¹² Insisting that “the time has come for serious and thoroughgoing examination,” he submitted to the Board the following January a proposal for a “self-study” of the Association. The self-study process, conducted under the counsel and guidance of former staff member Hal Colvin (who at the time was a member of the national student YMCA staff), yielded a report in November of 1957. The report concluded that “the specifics of the present program and the role and mission of the ‘Y’ are not entirely clear.” While it found the Association’s work with faculty, graduate students, and international students to be strong and effective, it declared that work with undergraduate students was in need of much improvement. It called for the elimination of Freshman Camp and other programs carried on outside the building, and for a “frank re-emphasis of the Christian role” of the Association. It suggested that

The University YMCA should strive to serve the religious needs of the students on the campus. There is a large amount of student interest in the area of religion that is not presently being put to work. The YMCA should seek to become the intellectual religious center of the campus. In this sense, the YMCA—in cooperation with the church religious foundations—should serve as a supplement to the intellectual search for secular truth in the University.¹³

The implementation of the suggestions of the self-study report became the responsibility of a reconstructed staff. In 1958, first General Secretary Pete Ingalls and then associate program secretary Al Herman were forced to resign. Fred Miller took over as General Secretary in the fall of 1958, and in April of 1959, Ed [p. 109] Nestingen began his work as associate secretary for program. Both Miller and Nestingen had deep roots in student YMCA work. Each had served as an executive of more than one local student association, and each had held a staff position with the National Student Council of YMCAs. At the University YMCA, they joined John Price, who continued his focus on work with international students, and Phil Ross, who worked on financial development.

It was the students who made the next move in pushing for change in the University YMCA’s mission. The change they called for can only be described as radical. It was also sharply at odds with the self-study report’s call for a re-emphasis on the Christian role of the Association. At a meeting of the Board of Directors on April 20, 1959, student president Tom Chandler declared that references to membership in the Association’s Constitution needed to be “modernized.” He recommended a membership “in which one does not have to make a personal commitment to the Christian faith.” He also reported that the Student Cabinet had drafted a purpose statement which it felt captured the Association’s “true” aim. The statement declared that the purpose of the University YMCA is

To provide an opportunity for people with widely divergent religious views or no established views to exchange ideas and doubts against a backdrop of the Judeo-Christian tradition; and, provide an opportunity for young men to accept and fulfill positions of responsibility by discovering individual abilities and encouraging their development.¹⁴

Adding another major dimension to his call for change, Chandler reported that “It is the stated desire of the students to make our program co-educational. [We] recommend complete merger with the YWCA in program, including, if feasible, budgets, staff, and operating [sic] from one building.”

Surprisingly, Chandler’s report to the Board was recorded in the minutes without any hint of dissent, surprise, concern, or even discussion. After summarizing his report, the recording secretary moved on to another subject without comment. This is remarkable, given that Chandler’s suggestions marked a near abandonment [p. 110] of one of the longest and deepest held elements of the Association’s purpose: the primary emphasis on the Christian meaning and implications of the letter “C.” Now, according to Chandler, the letter “C” stood more for “contemporary” and “catalyst” than it did “Christian.”¹⁵

A response of sorts came in May of 1959, when the committee responsible for the self-study initiative released its final report on the Association’s work with undergraduate students. The committee reported that many of the programs the YMCA offered that were successful in the past no longer attracted student interest. It drew heavily on a controversial, widely read study by Philip Jacob, Changing Values in College, which found that college had little or no effect on altering most students’ values and commitments. In language SDS’s Port Huron Statement would later echo, Jacob’s analysis suggested that most students were “unabashedly self-centered,” politically irresponsible and illiterate, unconcerned about international affairs, and firmly wedded to “traditional” moral virtues and values. There were, however, at least 25 percent of students who did not fit this mold, and who were uneasy with the self-centered attitude of their peers. “This uneasiness is a healthy sign,” the YMCA’s self-study committee declared, “and the YMCA should capitalize on it by using it as a basic tool in student recruitment and development.”

The committee issued a long list of specific program suggestions, calling, among other things, for a co-educational “New Students’ Camp,” a leadership training program, and the addition of a community service initiative. They suggested that the over-all program should emphasize “the relatedness between the individual and his God, his society, his nation, and his world.” An emphasis on both relatedness and openness was crucial, they felt, “since students today apparently are lacking in this understanding, and this is perhaps their greatest need.” For the Association as a whole, an openness to religious pluralism was named as essential. Suggesting that they were at least in partial agreement with Chandler’s remarks to the Board in April, the committee declared that

The YMCA has and should continue to endeavor to draw [p. 111] both the “searchers” and the “skeptics” into its program so as to reach all, not just those who are already committed to the Christian faith. To quote Rev. A. L. Kershaw speaking on YMCA program, “Our concern goes to all students of whatever religion or none, that they may perceive in thought and experience the truth about themselves and that which transcends them.”¹⁶

The openness to religious pluralism was included as a central component of the new official statement of purpose adopted by the Board of Directors at a special retreat at Allerton Park held on February 11-12, 1961. While the new purpose statement (quoted in full above) acknowledged the importance of the Association’s “Christian heritage,” it emphasized an embrace of an “unlimited search for religious meaning.” In explaining this embrace, the Board declared that by “nature, tradition, and experience,” the University YMCA had always sought to serve the entire University community, and that this community had grown to include a wide range of faith perspectives.

A set of eight objectives were adopted by the Board along with the statement of purpose. These were:

(1) To provide a common meeting ground for any who wish to probe deeply into the purpose and meaning of life. (2) In the open search for religious meaning as it takes place in the Association, to present the Christian faith as clearly as possible, not dogmatically but through open sharing. (3) To provide for the needs of students from abroad, to help them become acquainted and feel welcome, and with them mutually to share the basic ideas and ideals of our respective cultures. (4) To provide opportunities for individuals to engage in purposeful service. (5) To provide an atmosphere in which intimate personal relationships and friendships are possible. (6) To provide an opportunity for all of its supporting constituents to be related to its activities and inquiries. (7) To be a responsible member of the Area, National, and International movement of the YMCA. (8) To continue the traditional character of the YMCA as a spearhead organization that moves constantly into new areas of need.¹⁷

[p. 112] Together, these objectives formed a new article in the Association’s By-Laws.

The actual work of a voluntary association may or may not reflect formal mission statements and sets of objectives. Gaps between rhetoric and practice are, for various reasons, sometimes quite large. However, to a very high degree, the University YMCA in the 1958-1973 period actually practiced what it preached. The work and life of the Association during this period was impressive. These were years of tremendous activity, involving many thousands of students, faculty, and community members in dialogue, reflection, and action on a wide range of issues and concerns. The energy, vision, and passion the staff and members of the Association brought to the building at the corner of Wright and Chalmers helped the YMCA to realize its goal of becoming an important intellectual religious center of the campus. The interest and activity generated by the great events and movements of the time also helped, of course. The YMCA became a kind of beacon, attracting more and more people who were searching for meaning and ways to be engaged in constructive action on both personal and public issues.

Describing the work of the 1958-1973 period is not an easy task. So much was happening—and so much was said about what was happening—that a whole book could be written on this period alone. What follows is merely suggestive of what was done. I present the work under three headings, representing each of the Associations main constituencies: students, faculty, and community.

Students

Work with students during this period developed along three different lines. There were separate programs for international students, graduate students, and undergraduates. While specific work was done for and by each of these groups, there were also events and activities that brought combinations of them together with faculty and members of the community. Even so, work for each of the separate groups was quite distinct.

Work with international students for most of this period continued [p. 113] to be led by John Price. The work included a variety of individual services and social, cultural, and political programs. Services provided included letters of welcome to new students, meeting arriving students at depots and airports, helping them to find temporary housing, keeping a list of rooms and apartments, and personal counseling. Programs included an International Welcome Weekend (similar to Freshman Camp), which drew anywhere from 150-200 participants; International Suppers, held 10-12 times a year with as many as 300 persons attending each; a Little United Nations program, patterned after the U. N. General Assembly, held five or six times a year; periodic seminars on global issues and concerns; a weekly “meet your world neighbors” program on WILL, the local public radio station; a home hospitality program where international students and their families were invited to visit homes in the Champaign-Urbana area; a program that gave students an opportunity to do community work in other countries, including an “Illini in India” project held during the summer of 1966, involving 13 University of Illinois students in a work camp; and tours and trips to local and national destinations during weekends and breaks. The most popular tour was the Southern Tour, an annual week-long bus tour through the south during spring break with special emphasis on the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). First conducted in 1952, it became one of the high points of the YMCA’s work with international students, eventually involving as many as 200 participants each year.

Under Price, the YMCA’s work with international students during the 1950s and 60s continued the spirit of the “friendly relations” work begun back in 1918. The main aim of the work was to promote individual friendship, respect, and understanding between people from different nations. Price believed that this personal aim had deep significance, connected both to Christian principles and the development of better world relations. He wrote in 1960 that

Everybody was somebody to Christ. As someone has remarked, “He never saw ‘masses.’ He saw Faces.” Through our personal relationships with students, through committees, [p. 114] and our program, we too are trying to see Faces. The faces of students reflecting insecurity, fear, uncertainty, confusion, are ours to see, and to be sensitive to their needs. Through many relationships we hope that we can set them on the path to greatness. A part of this task is the one of being aware of the many opportunities around us where leadership with vision and commitment is needed. One of these opportunities is in the need on the world basis for cultural understanding between countries. President Eisenhower has put it this way: “We need more individual diplomats from ‘Main Street,’ from our farms, schools, laboratories—from every walk of life. People-to-people diplomacy means thousands of part-time ambassadors, all working for better relationships among all people.”¹⁸

The number of students reached by the Association’s international work was substantial. Those who were served by or involved in the work developed a deep appreciation for Price’s personal concern and respect, which they carried with them after they returned to their home countries. In November of 1961, Price received a leave of absence so he could take a three month world tour of 21 countries to visit with about 300 of these former students. Upon his return to Illinois, he reported that many students told him that their experiences at the YMCA were among the most valuable of all their experiences at the University.

Price resigned in May of 1968, after 18 years on the staff, to take a position with the University of Illinois’ Office of Foreign Student Affairs. His departure marked the end of an era for the University YMCA. While work with international students continued after he left, it never again achieved the same height of influence and activity. In part, this was due to a new commitment by the University to offer many of the same services and programs that the YMCA had previously offered.

Work with graduate students was described in the 1959 report of the self-study committee as being one of the Association’s strong points.¹⁹ Curiously, however, almost nothing was ever published about this work in the Y’s Indian, and very little documentation of what it involved survives in the historical materials I reviewed. [p. 115] The main components of the work were weekly “co-op” lunches, Friday evening forums and discussion groups, and social gatherings and outings. Each of these was co-sponsored by the University YWCA, and each was under the staff responsibility of John Price. After Price left the staff, most of this work was apparently discontinued. I found no evidence that the Association made a sustained attempt to revive work with graduate students after 1968.

Work with and for undergraduates, named as weak by the self-study committee, was greatly strengthened during the first part of the 1958-1973 period. Ed Nestingen deserves much of the credit for turning around the work with undergraduates. His presence and influence was a major force during this period. Just as John Price reached and engaged international students with his deep personal concern and active program, so Ed Nestingen reached and engaged a generation of undergraduates with his passionate search for life purpose and meaning and his commitment to challenging others to live out their beliefs and convictions.

The annual Freshman Camp, which had been briefly discontinued in the late 50s, was reestablished in 1959. Starting in 1961, it became co-educational when the YWCA became a co-sponsor. In 1964, it was renamed “Freshman Conference,” and in 1971, it became “New Student Conference.” The dropping of the word “camp” in favor of “conference” was meant to signal a change in emphasis. Rather than being mostly devoted to recreation and “fun,” conferences were designed around intense sharing of participants’ concerns, fears, hopes, and expectations about college life. With the involvement of many faculty and older students, they became forums for addressing serious matters related to higher education. Conference planners sought to create experiences where students and faculty could explore together the question, “Education for what?”²⁰

The conferences grew increasingly popular through the 1960s. The conference in 1968 was attended by 350 freshmen, 70 returning students, and 80 faculty members. The new emphasis on serious matters combined with the growing campus unrest of the late 1960s brought some controversy to the program. The conference in 1968 featured a lengthy and quite critical discussion of certain [p. 116] actions and policies of the University that upset some students and faculty members. It prompted Bruce Larson, chair of the YMCA’s Board of Directors, to ask, “Is this a training ground for activism or is it an orientation to the University?”²¹ In a real sense, it had become both.

The Student Cabinet continued to function as the key leadership group of the Association’s undergraduate program during much of this period. The Cabinet was composed of the elected student president and three student officers, along with all the various appointed committee chairs representing particular areas of work. The number of Cabinet members fluctuated from year to year, including as many as 20 students. Committees also changed from year to year, covering a range of social, religious, educational, recreational, and political concerns and activities. While there were some very strong years, there were also years in which the Cabinet struggled to understand its purpose and function. In the 1963-1964 academic year, for example, it was reported to the Board that there was a “growing disinterest and lack of unity” in the Cabinet, that students were unsure why a Cabinet existed and what Cabinet meetings were supposed to accomplish. It was reported that it was difficult for the students to conduct an effective program because there was little substantial student involvement.²²

In other years there were Cabinets with highly creative, enthusiastic, and engaged students. Among the best was the Cabinet of 1962-63, which included John Gwinn as president, Darrell Hartweg as first vice president, Lowell Hoffman as second vice president, and Richard Maguire as secretary. Among other things, the group focused on the meaning of religious faith in the context of the social and political unrest of the day, and the ethical dimensions and responsibilities of a range of professions. They organized a retreat in the winter of 1963 with the Board and members of the YWCA and other campus religious groups on the theme, “The Meaning of Work in Modern Society.” Each of the members of this Cabinet testified in later years that their lives were deeply transformed by their experiences at the YMCA, in large part because of the inspirational and challenging counsel they received from Ed Nestingen.

[p. 117] Another especially active Cabinet was fielded in 1966-67. Led by president C. John Anderson, it pushed for the merger of the Student Cabinets and work of the YMCA and the YWCA. The merger was passed, though it lasted only a few years. The YMCA Student Cabinet structure itself was replaced in 1971 with something called the “Program Decisional Group,” which was composed of students, faculty, and staff.

Students initiated and participated in a wide range of programs and activities during the 1958-1973 period. Some of the most notable of these were a student exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1958, reportedly one of the first in the nation; the development of a “Great Debates” program in 1962, which featured major national speakers and attracted enormous crowds and media attention; the Pal program (described below under “Community”); Friday afternoon and evening forums, which focused on various religious, social, and political topics and were attended by as many as 300 students each week; the establishment of Bible study and theological discussion groups, focused on relations between men and women, religion and politics, and other concerns; the organizing of a draft counseling service; a renewal of racial justice work, featuring a program developed in 1969 called “White on White,” which aimed at understanding and addressing the role of white people and institutions in perpetuating racism; and the founding of a Center for Non-Violent Social Change in 1970, which conducted seminars, workshops, and action projects aimed at helping groups to learn creative, non-violent approaches to addressing social problems.

The longest-lasting student initiative of this period was the founding of Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS) in 1969. Originally called “Students for Environmental Controls,” SECS was organized in connection with the fall, 1969 Faculty Forum series on the theme of “Beyond Technology: Our Human and Natural Environment.” SECS was meant to be a vehicle for linking the campus environmental groups that existed at the time. During the fall semester of 1969, SECS organized over 100 students and faculty members in “Operation Cleanup,” which resulted in the removal of seven truckloads of tires, bed springs, steel barrels, [p. 118] and other garbage from Boneyard Creek.

In conjunction with the first national Earth Day held on April 22, 1970, SECS organized an impressive week-long program of lectures, seminars, field trips, and discussions. Called “Environmental Crisis Week,” the program cost $20,000 (raised from a variety of sources, including Peoria-based Caterpillar Corporation and the University of Illinois) and drew thousands of participants. It helped spark a great deal of environmental action and education work over the next several years. In the first few years of SECS’s life, the group broadened its focus from clean-ups to recycling drives and legislative action campaigns, involving hundreds of students, faculty, and community members in its activities.

Faculty

To the extent that the University YMCA achieved its ambition to become the intellectual religious center of the campus, it was its faculty-related work which led the way. The centerpiece of the faculty work was the Faculty Forum, created in 1927 and co-sponsored during this period with the YWCA. During 1959-1962, it was partly supported by a grant from the Danforth Foundation. Until the end of the 1958-1973 period, when attendance began to drop, the Faculty Forum drew increasingly large and enthusiastic audiences, with an average weekly attendance nearing 200 persons. After Huston Smith, a scholar of world religions from MIT, spoke in the fall, 1960 series on the theme, “Toward a Socially Responsible University Curriculum,” he wrote an unsolicited letter to a friend at the Danforth Foundation brimming with praise for the YMCA’s work. Smith wrote that

I was enormously impressed with the day and a half I spent in Champaign, and particularly with the “Y” program there. As I recall, there were over 200 faculty members who turned out for the noon lecture and question period following. At 4:00, a seminar program drew a dozen faculty and three times that number of students to dig seriously into the curricular implications of the thoughts their proposals raised during the noon session. I was struck by the caliber of the professors who turned up for this afternoon session, particularly. If they were [p. 119] not exceptional, the faculty at the University of Illinois is stronger than I had realized. That night, between 200 and 300 students, I would judge, turned up on a Friday night for the discussion on world affairs, some remaining on until 11:15! The following morning, starting at 8:30, some 30 members of the YMCA and YWCA met with me until I had to leave for the plane at 10:30, pursuing in an unusually serious way the place of Christianity within the “Y” program.²³

While the themes for the Faculty Forums during the first thirty years of its life were almost all focused on religion, and specifically Christianity, during the 1958-1973 period the themes were substantially broadened. Conceived and planned each semester by a committee of 15-20 faculty members from a wide range of disciplines, series themes during this period included “Work in Modern Society”; “Civil Rights: An American Crisis”; “Military Power: The Limits of Persuasion”; “The Crisis in Our Cities”; “The Impact of Mass Media”; “The University and the Emerging Social Order”; and “Challenge to Authority: Institutions on Trial.” In addition to featuring local members of the faculty, the Faculty Forum brought major national scholars, journalists, activists, and theologians to campus, including Paul Tillich, Harrison Salisbury, Jack Newfield, Michael Novak, Paul Goodman, John Chancellor, Noam Chomsky, and Saul Alinsky. As might be guessed from this list, very few of the speakers were women. It was not until the 1980s that a more equal number of men and women were invited to speak in the program.

In addition to the Faculty Forum, the University YMCA’s work with faculty included an annual lecture on the theme of “The Bible and Modern Man.” Called the “Meyer Forum Series,” the lectures were delivered in Latzer Hall by leading theologians. The series was made possible by a gift from Julien and Bertha M. Collins, in memory of Mrs. Collins’ father, Adolf Meyer, a founder of the Pet Milk Company. Each lecture drew an average of 300 persons, as many as half of whom were students. Students often attended programs that were mainly aimed at faculty. The desire to encourage them to do so led the YMCA and YWCA to change the name of the Faculty Forum program to “Friday Forum” in 1971.

[p. 120] The Young Men’s Faculty Club, originally established in the late 1940s but discontinued for a while, was revived in the late 1950s. In 1968, however, it was discontinued again. “Know Your University,” a program designed to help new and visiting faculty members to become acquainted with the programs and resources of the University, was launched in the spring of 1971. Like the Friday Forum, it featured a series of noon lectures each semester that were planned by a committee of faculty members. Know Your University proved to be popular, though not as popular as Friday Forum. It continues to this day, but its intended audience has widened to include all faculty, staff, and students.

Community

While the major focus of the University YMCA’s work had always up to this point been the campus, its early work included “deputations” to Champaign-Urbana and surrounding communities. As recounted in Chapter Two, the Association created a Boys’ Work department in 1910 that sent college students out to work with young boys in local schools. Both the deputations work and the Boys’ Work department, however, had been discontinued by the end of the 1950s.

At the start of the 1958-1973 period, there was a standing committee on the Student Cabinet named “community service” that linked a small number of University students to volunteer projects in local community centers and schools. One of these projects was a “Pal” program, originally organized by the McKinley Foundation and the Champaign Public School District’s social work department. Starting around 1962, the University YMCA, the University YWCA, and the Champaign-Urbana Council for Community Integration took over the sponsorship of the Pal program and greatly expanded it. The purpose of the program, as described in an early promotional flier, was to pair

University students with young children from the neighboring community who are in some way or another “culturally deprived” due to their environment. The University student becomes the child’s “Pal,” taking an interest in him and trying [p. 121] to show him what possibilities are open for his future. By taking him to various cultural and athletic activities or to local places of interest, it is hoped that the child’s horizons and aspirations can be raised. Moreover, just the fact that someone is taking an interest in him or her will encourage the child to do better in school and in everything he does.²⁴

The Pal program developed to serve over 250 grade school children each year (both boys and girls), almost all of whom were African-American. These “Junior Pals” were matched with an equal number of “Senior Pals,” almost all of whom were white University of Illinois undergraduate students. Around 1968, when those who were organizing the program became more sensitive to race and class issues, the need to make significant changes in the program were discussed and debated. Program leaders began to recognize that

When a large group of white-upper-middle-class-success-oriented young adults move into a poverty culture, they tend unconsciously to act as if their norms and life objectives are better than those of the culture into which they are moving. This can have detrimental effects upon the university student, the child and the parent.²⁵

The redesign of the Pal program included the hiring of James Burnett, an African-American parent and community member, to staff the program, along with the organizing of “parent core groups” and an attempt to recruit African-American Senior Pals. Instead of having social workers select the Junior Pals, parents of the youth from the community were organized to nominate youth and oversee and promote the program. These changes were meant to provide parents with direct knowledge of and input into program activities, to enhance the “cross-cultural understanding” dimension of the program, and to reduce patronizing and racist attitudes on the part of the Senior Pals. After the changes were made, community suppers, gatherings, and celebrations were added in an attempt to build community ownership in the program.

[p. 122] Institutional Trends and Dynamics

With all the acclaim the University YMCA’s work received during the 1958-1973 period, it is perhaps surprising that these years were fraught with serious financial troubles, along with considerable debate and uncertainty about the Association’s fundamental purpose. With respect to finances, the annual budget, which was switched from an academic to a calendar year in 1968, rose from $93,158 in 1958 to $141,000 in 1973. However, in only four out of the fifteen years of this period was the budget balanced. Every other year ended in a deficit, the largest of which was over $13,000 for the 1964-1965 year. By 1967, the Association had racked up an accumulated operating deficit of over $33,000. On a more positive note, under the guidance of the Board of Trustees, the value of the endowment reached nearly $400,000 in 1969.

Membership patterns in the Association during this period featured sharp breaks with the past. First, student membership plummeted in comparison to previous eras. Whereas during much of the 1940s and 50s there had been 1,000 or more student members each year, there were fewer than 100 student members during most of the years between 1958-1973, with a low being reached in 1968-69 of fewer than 50. Second, faculty memberships continued the climb that began in the 1950s, averaging between 350-400 per year. But the most significant change was the decision in December of 1971 to allow women to be full, voting members of the Association. For the first time, women could hold elected offices and serve on the Board of Directors. The University YMCA was a latecomer in allowing women to be full members. Already by 1964, eighty percent of the YMCAs in the United States reported women and girls as members.²⁶ Still, across the country women were not proportionately represented on YMCA policy making bodies. This was reflected at the University YMCA. The thirty-six member Board of Directors for 1972-73 included only one woman: a student active in SECS named Keturah Reinbold.

The Association began the 1958-1973 period with four full-time secretaries and seven support staff. By the end of the period there were three full-time professional staff and nine part-time and support staff. One change related to staff which was of more [p. 123] than symbolic importance was the dropping in 1966 of the term “secretary,” which had historically been used in the job titles of professional staff in the YMCA. In YMCAs across the nation, “secretary” was replaced by the term “director.” This reflected the extent to which the institutional dimension of the YMCA had triumphed over its movement roots. Nationally, the YMCA had become to a large extent a staff-driven, secular social service agency or institution, rather than a volunteer-led religious association or movement. Secretaries were originally hired in the YMCA to serve voluntary movements. Now, “directors” were hired to run institutions and their service-oriented programs. Of course, not every YMCA lost its movement dimension. The University YMCA during this period was probably one of the leading associations in the nation in retaining much of its movement character.

In the fall of 1967, Fred Miller resigned his position as General Director in order to accept an executive position with the national YMCA’s southeast region. Miller’s resignation came with little advance notice, leaving an insufficient amount of time to launch a search for a new director. Due to the shortness of time and a desire to address financial and program direction problems before hiring a new director, Board of Directors’ chair Bruce Larson agreed to serve as Interim General Director. Under Larson’s direction, the Board began a process of reflection and evaluation. Most of the November, 1967, Board meeting was devoted to a discussion of the Association’s financial and programmatic problems. The discussion, which was recorded in great detail in the minutes, brought many serious challenges to light, including confusion and disagreement over the Association’s purpose.

The discussion was opened by Bruce Larson, who noted that the financial situation was deeply troubling, the building was seeing less use, and many of the Association’s programs were facing declining participation. He declared that “bold, radical—possibly total—change is needed.” Such change might, he suggested, include selling the building. Program Director Ed Nestingen commented on the changing interests and mood of students, who were increasingly impatient with programs that emphasized listening to speeches. Students wanted to be involved in action projects, [p. 124] Nestingen said. The YMCA needed to change to meet this desire. Unfortunately, he argued, “Strong conservative forces in the Y and among students are bucking change.” Declaring that “We do not have a clear concept of what the YMCA really is,” he asked the Board, “What is the conviction about the path to be taken by this Y?” The question was left unanswered. Student president R. E. Marshall remarked that students felt bound up in detail work. He said that they felt they were stagnating and being governed by tradition. He declared that the “YMCA doesn’t attract because it doesn’t face what students are interested in.”²⁷

The problem of a lack of clarity and consensus on the Association’s purpose was first pointed out at a Board meeting in 1966 by Fred Miller. In January of that year, Miller stressed to the Board that it was urgent that they deal with the “growing problem” of a disagreement over the Association’s nature, purpose, and objectives between those who were implementing program and policy and some sectors of its constituency. At a meeting of the Board in March of 1966, it was argued that there was a gulf between current students and the alumni and friends who provided financial support. In part, the gulf was identified as being spawned by students’ “anti-institutional” attitudes, and in part, it was said to be related to a continuing struggle over the place and meaning of the Christian faith in the Association’s work. In response to campaign statements that were issued by candidates for student officer positions in 1966, a former Board member asked, “Is the YMCA afraid of the word ‘Christian’?”²⁸

To explore the problems over finances and purpose, Larson appointed a self-study committee in November of 1967 modeled after the one formed in 1957. Chaired by Daniel Perrino, the committee conducted several meetings before issuing its report in May of 1968. Half of the report was devoted to an identification of problems and questions, and half was devoted to a series of recommendations. Nothing earth-shattering or radical was suggested, despite Larson’s view just six months earlier that radical or even “total” change was needed. In fact, the firmest conclusion the committee reached was that the existing statement of purpose was still relevant and desirable, and that it ought to be the foundation [p. 125] of all of the Association’s programs and services.²⁹

In February of 1968, Harold Reinhart, who had been hired the previous year as the Director of Financial Development, became the Association’s new General Director. Reinhart, an Iowa native, had previously served for 16 years as the Executive Director of the YMCA at Iowa State University. At the time of his hiring, it was incorrectly pointed out that Reinhart would be the first General Director of the University YMCA who was not an ordained minister. In reality, he was simply the first since the time before Henry Wilson, when the Association had many General Secretaries who were not ministers.

A few months after Reinhart became General Director, Robert Scarborough (who was an ordained minister) was hired as a new member of the program staff to replace John Price. In 1970, Jim Young, an active and creative former student member of the Board, was hired on a half-time basis to work with programs. Ed Nestingen remained as the Program Director.

The major tasks facing the Association after Reinhart became General Director included improving finances, setting a policy related to taking positions on controversial issues, and planning for the centennial celebration. With respect to finances, things were improved in the short term. Two of the four years that the budget was balanced in the 1958-1973 period came in the first two years of Reinhart’s tenure. Reinhart’s fundraising skills proved to be effective. Also helpful were the renting of office space to the University YWCA and a decision to shift the responsibility for running the K-Room restaurant from the YMCA to an outside individual, each of which resulted in a major net gain in annual income. In 1970, the YMCA received a $25,000 challenge grant from the Krannert Foundation, with the gift being contingent on the ability of the Association to raise $75,000 from Board, staff, and alumni and friends by the end of the year. The goal was met and exceeded, with approximately $120,000 raised altogether. The fund, named as a memorial for former Board of Trustee member Wayne Johnston, was used to purchase new furnishings for the building and to complete a few renovation and repair projects. One change made at this time was the conversion of the Poor Memorial [p. 126] Library on the third floor, which had received little use, into two new rooms for residents. This was not done out of a desire to be in the resident business. Consistent with Henry Wilson’s belief, running a residence hall was still viewed as inappropriate. Rather, it was done out of an intense commitment to find ways to squeeze more income out of the building so it could continue to be used to support the Association’s mission.

The 1971-72 academic year was marked by debate over where the Association and its programs ought to stand with respect to taking positions on controversial issues. In October of 1971, the Board passed an official policy on the matter that listed six guiding principles.³⁰ The policy stressed the importance of encouraging individuals and groups within the YMCA to debate and act on social problems. However, it warned that “Certain actions on controversial issues may not be proper for the U. of I. YMCA or its constituent programs to make or to encourage or to sponsor.” Examples listed included advocating violence and partisan political support. The policy was put to use the following winter, when SECS issued a study of the voting records of members of the Illinois State Legislature which named an “Environmental Dirty Dozen,” and a group sponsored by the Center for Non-Violent Social Change decided to endorse candidates for public office. The SECS issue was apparently resolved when the group agreed to explore “alternative” ways of reporting the information they had gathered. The issue related to the Center was resolved in March when it decided to end its affiliation with the YMCA.

The end of the 1958-1973 period coincided with the University YMCA’s 100th anniversary. Retired professor of Agricultural Law and former Board member Harold Hannah was commissioned to write a history of the Association. Titled One Hundred Years of Action, it was published in book form by the University YMCA in the spring of 1973. The book was especially successful in capturing the many contributions of individual staff, students, and faculty members in giving life to the Association’s mission during its first hundred years. Several events were also held to mark the centennial, including a 100th anniversary dinner attended by over 200 people. The main address at the dinner was delivered by Paul [p. 127] Limbert, the former Secretary General of the World’s Alliance of YMCAs.

Speaking on the theme of “A Once-For-All Faith for a Free-For-All Future,” Limbert called on the University YMCA to “keep the Christian spirit alive” among college students. He argued that Christianity was a “forward-looking” faith which gave human values first priority and worked for the achievement of every person’s potential.³¹ Looking to the future, Limbert declared in his speech that

The real question is how our deepest insights concerning Jesus of Nazareth can help us find meaning and direction in our personal lives, in all our relationships, and in our efforts to serve the university community through the YMCA. If by “humanism” we mean that human values should be given priority above all others and that we are concerned about helping every person realize his full potential, then in Jesus we see par excellence what it means to be truly human.³²

1973-1984

The first eleven years after the University YMCA’s centennial brought major changes in both mission and work. The key elements of change included a strong focus on serving the whole Champaign-Urbana community instead of mainly the campus, and a near disappearance—at least with respect to program—of the Association’s traditional religious focus. By the end of this period, the University YMCA had to a considerable degree been transformed into something quite different from what it was in previous eras.

Several different articulations of purpose and objectives were put forward in various forms during the 1973-1984 period, culminating in the passing of a new mission statement in the fall of 1982. The first of these was the adoption by the Board of Directors in April of 1974 of a statement of purpose and set of objectives for the seventies. The purpose statement declared that

Recognizing our Christian heritage, the University of Illinois YMCA seeks to enlist all concerned persons in meeting the [p. 128] needs of our campus and community through study, discussion, understanding, and purposeful action.³³

Six objectives were passed to accompany this purpose:

(1) To provide opportunities for persons to engage in purposeful service which will meet the needs and improve the quality of life for students, faculty and community persons. (2) To provide an atmosphere in which intimate social relationships and friendships are possible. (3) To work with other agencies and organizations which have common interests and concerns in meeting campus and community needs. (4) To supplement study and learning in the University through group experiences such as seminars, workshops and tours. (5) To continue the traditional character of the YMCA as a spearhead organization that moves constantly into new areas of concern. (6) To provide a common meeting ground for those who wish to probe into the meaning of life; to aid in developing moral, spiritual, and vocational direction for their lives; and to offer through open sharing, the meaning of the Christian heritage.³⁴

These objectives were almost exactly the same as those adopted in 1961, with two exceptions. The new objectives made no mention of work with international students, and no mention of the national student YMCA movement. The reasons behind the dropping of a major focus on international work were noted above. The absence of a mention of the student YMCA movement reflected the fact that it no longer existed (see the discussion section below).

A few years after the Board of Directors passed the new purpose and objectives in 1974, the Board of Trustees put forward a set of goals for the Association that were significantly (though not completely) different from those of the Directors. They reflected the Trustees belief that the Christian focus of the Association ought to be central, and work with international students should be retained. The Trustees goals were

(1) To help spiritualize the educational process at the University [p. 129] of Illinois. (2) To promote a sense of fellowship and harmony among students and staff at the U. of I. campus. (3) To provide leadership training of a kind that emphasizes integrity, honesty, compassion, and understanding. (4) To hold up the Christian Life as the model for all men and women at the U. of I. (5) To provide an atmosphere of warmth and helpfulness to aid in the acclimation of new students at the U. of I. campus, especially foreign students and freshmen. (6) To develop a sense of social responsibility in all phases of life.³⁵

In October of 1979, the Board of Directors passed a new set of eleven goals for the Association which were consistent with the Trustees’ views.³⁶ The first goal was “To maintain the Christian character and perspective of the organization.” The first objective listed under this goal was to “Present a number of programs that specifically deal with Christian principles.” Other goals reaffirmed the Association’s commitment to developing programs that would make the YMCA a center for international, intercultural, and interracial understanding, acceptance, and respect; for the development of programs and activities designed to welcome and serve new students (especially international students) and faculty; to continue to organize and present forums on important social issues; and to strengthen community service work beyond the campus.

The final action of this period with respect to purpose was the passing of a new mission statement by the Board of Directors. Approved on September 29, 1982, after several drafts had been debated and discussed, the new mission declared that

The YMCA at the University of Illinois provides an environment for the open exploration of Christian values and the promotion of student, faculty, and community dialog with the purpose of identifying and developing ethical, innovative, affirmative, and responsible leadership for social change.³⁷

Changes in Work

Work with students, faculty, and community members each changed during the 1973-1984 period. After the Student Cabinet [p. 130] model was abandoned in 1971, several approaches to the development of student work were explored. What eventually emerged was a more open, flexible and informal process than had been used in the past. A special effort was made by staff to encourage student leadership and involvement in the life of the whole Association, including especially the Board.

The last New Student Conference was held during the fall of 1973. It was a small, disappointing gathering, attended by only 41 students. In 1978 there was an attempt to revive the program, but it was unsuccessful. While it was an important part of the Association’s work with students for nearly 50 years, it no longer attracted enough interest to be continued.

Attempts to revive work with international students were more successful. During the fall of 1977, after cuts were made in the University’s budget for international services and programs, a new YMCA international committee was established. The committee developed an idea to convert part of the building into an international center and reestablished some of the personal services and programs that had been provided in the past. Sponsorship of the Southern Tour was renewed, a weekly International Coffee Hour series was created, and exchanges with local families were organized. In 1980, regular international dinners were added, resembling the popular international suppers held in the 1950s and 60s. By 1982, the Association hired a half-time staff person to coordinate a host of international programs, including a weekly International Hour, monthly dinners and Fireside Chats, the sponsoring of a campus-wide International Festival, and a variety of individual lectures, outings, and special events.

SECS continued to grow during this period, becoming a major source of some of the best student leadership in the Association. It involved hundreds of students each year in a range of educational and action-oriented projects, including recycling drives, clean-up campaigns, the compiling of legislative voting records, talks and programs in local schools, and testifying at legislative hearings. It was an important member of one coalition of environmental groups that helped to save Allerton Park from being flooded by a proposed Army Corps of Engineers project, and of [p. 131] another that established the Community Recycling Center.

SECS’s work continued to include taking action and positions on political issues, sometimes creating a little controversy for the YMCA. In the fall of 1973, SECS filed a pollution complaint with the Illinois Pollution Control Board against a company that was discharging pollutants into the Fox River in northern Illinois. The complaint resulted in an agreement with the company to spend $100,000 to correct the problem. In 1974, SECS was an active member of a coalition working to stop the commissioning of the Clinton nuclear power plant. The YMCA in nearby Decatur put pressure on the University YMCA to end its support for SECS over this issue. SECS’s lobbying for the passage of a “Bottle Bill” requiring mandatory return charges on soda bottles also caused the YMCA grief with Pepsi-Cola, one of the Association’s annual contributors.

SECS’s most notable action effort during these years related to the University’s Abbott power plant. After the University announced in 1981 that it was going to convert the plant from natural gas to coal, SECS launched a campaign, led by former YMCA student president John Thompson, to require the plant to install “dry scrubbers” in its smoke stacks in order to reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide. The YMCA Board of Governors (the new name for the Board of Directors adopted in 1978) passed a formal statement endorsing SECS’s position on the issue. After intense and aggressive lobbying and protest, SECS succeeded in convincing the University and Illinois Governor Jim Thompson to support their call for requiring scrubbers in the converted power plant.

The Association’s work with faculty during the 1973-1984 period continued to revolve around the Friday Forum and Know Your University lecture-discussion programs. Although the level of participation in each program was still substantial (about 50 each week for Know Your University and 120 for Friday Forum), fewer faculty participated than in the previous period. Friday Forum began to shift away from religious and theological concerns. In the 1960s and early 1970s, it was understood that the purpose of Friday Forum was to provide a forum for the exploration of major societal issues in a multidisciplinary, action-oriented (as [p. 132] opposed to academic or “objective”) manner, with much attention to the religious dimensions of particular issues.³⁸ After the mid 70s, the religious side of the program was significantly scaled back. Friday Forum themes were increasingly focused on political rather than religious or theological concerns. Series topics during this period included “Beyond Nationalism”; “Choices for a More Humane Society”; “The American Political System”; “Peace or War”; “Issues Facing Illinois in the 80s”; and “Searching for Educational Excellence.”

The big story with respect to the Association’s work during the 1973-1984 period was the enormous expansion of programs for the larger Champaign-Urbana community. The expansion of community work was first discussed at a Board-staff retreat held in October of 1973. At this retreat, it was decided to restructure the program staff. Program Director Ed Nestingen’s responsibilities had already been shifted to financial development earlier in the year. In 1974, two new program staff positions were created: one responsible for campus programs, and one for the development of new community work. With these changes, the Association began to move in a new direction. The feeling, as General Director Harold Reinhart told the Board of Directors in May of 1975, was that the University YMCA needed to expand its vision, to “reach out beyond the University to the total community.”³⁹

Although the Association ended its sponsorship of the Pal program in November of 1977, two new community-oriented initiatives were added that eventually were far larger than Pal. One was the creation of a program called “Communiversity.” The idea for Communiversity came from Political Science professor and Board member Steve Douglas, who took it from his father, a professor at Kansas State University who founded a program called “University for Men.” It was begun in pilot form in 1974, when the Association started offering a series of low-cost “mini-courses” on a variety of special interests and topics, such as bicycle repair, car care, and photography. A student group called the “Learning Exchange” was formed at the YMCA in 1975 that sought to match people who wished to teach or share skills with those seeking new ideas and experiences. The student group was inspired by a national [p. 133] movement to create “free” universities. Out of these early efforts, Communiversity was created in the spring of 1977. Based on the idea that “anyone can teach and anyone can learn,” Communiversity offers a wide range of non-credit, non-graded classes to the general public every semester. From the beginning, the program was a great success. By 1983, Communiversity was offering more than 70 classes every semester with an enrollment of almost 1,000 students.

The major community initiative the Association developed during these years was a program called the Youth Service Clearinghouse. This program emerged out of the work of a task force on juvenile justice that began meeting at the YMCA in the fall of 1973. The task force, composed of students, faculty, and community members, conducted research on issues related to youth and the justice and corrections systems and explored ways that students could become involved in these systems as volunteers. In 1974, it created a youth services program at the YMCA that placed dozens of student volunteers in local social service agencies and programs.

The task force focused its attention in 1974 on the possibility of establishing a “Youth Service Bureau” in Champaign-Urbana. This idea was sparked in part from a study conducted by faculty at the University of Illinois’ Jane Addams School of Social Work. Youth Service Bureaus, developed nationally during this period, represented a new approach to dealing with juvenile justice issues. They were designed to divert children and youth from the court system by bringing together community resources to solve youth problems, strengthening existing youth resources and programs or creating new ones, and initiating programs to counteract underlying conditions that fostered delinquency.

In January of 1975, the Board of Directors decided to seek funding from the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission (ILEC) for the development of a YMCA administered Youth Service Bureau. In an effort to garner community input and support, the Association organized a conference on juvenile justice in April of 1975, funded by the Illinois Humanities Council, which was attended by a diverse group of students, faculty, police officers, lawyers, [p. 134] teachers, ministers, and members of the local community. The conference revealed strong support for the Service Bureau idea. In September of 1975, the ILEC granted the YMCA $60,000 to pursue it.

With the money from the ILEC grant, the YMCA established a Youth Service Bureau which it named the Youth Service Clearinghouse (YSC). Greg Albert, the YMCA’s program director for community work, served as its first director. With the hiring of twelve additional staff, YSC began its work in January of 1976. Promotional materials described YSC as

a network of services whose major goal is to keep young people out of institutions by helping them to get invested in the mainstream of society. It does this mainly by seeking out the reasons for recurring crises and antisocial behavior (assessment) and by finding ways to alter those patterns (referral). Clearinghouse staff want to know why youth are not going to school; why they steal cars, prostitute, or deal dope; and they want to help young people find constructive ways to cope with difficult situations. The YSC is intended to be a resource for probation, police, schools, parents, friends, social service agencies, and anyone concerned about troubled youth. Early and appropriate referrals can divert young people from the criminal justice system and prevent delinquency.⁴⁰

The main components of YSC during its first year included an outreach program and a service brokerage system designed to link people to local services and programs. Several other programs and services were also provided, including Partners, a program that paired student and community volunteers with troubled youth in one-to-one friendships in order to improve youth’s self-esteem and involve them in constructive activities; the National Youth Project Using Mini-Bikes (NYPUM), which used mini-bikes to attract “hard-to-get-to” youth to be involved in activities aimed at building team-work and responsibility; wilderness trips; discussion groups; the publishing of a Youth Services Directory; a Youth Employment Project, designed to help youth locate, prepare for, and retain jobs; a Youth Basketball Program; survival and remedial skills [p. 135] projects; and the Carroll Addition Project, an initiative aimed at preventing juvenile delinquency in an Urbana neighborhood.

YSC experienced dramatic growth in its first few years. By 1978, under the direction of Judy Checker, YSC had become a county-wide program with a $200,000 budget (from both public and private sources), sixteen paid staff and consultants, six student interns, and more than fifty volunteers. Over 1,000 youth were served in 1978 by YSC’s various programs and services. Evidence of the effectiveness of YSC’s work was seen both in personal testimony from participants and community members, and in a decrease in crime statistics related to youth, as reported by local law enforcement agencies.

The rapid growth and success of YSC was gratifying to many in the YMCA, but it also brought tensions and disagreements to the surface about how well it served the Association’s basic purpose. YSC took the University YMCA into territory where it had never before ventured, and not everyone was comfortable with what it meant and required. Thus, in 1980, the Association decided to “spin-off” several of YSC’s programs and services to other agencies. At the end of 1980, a plan for disbanding YSC was passed by the Board of Governors. The decision was based in part on a belief that the YMCA should shift its community work from the provision of direct services that were dependent on paid staff to programs that tapped and developed University students as volunteers.⁴¹

Two new programs were created in 1981 to follow this new direction: Volunteers in the Schools (VIS A VIS), which organized volunteers to provide tutoring and other help for teachers in local schools; and Youth Employment Supportive Services (YESS), which used volunteers to help youth develop their job interests and skills. Both of these programs were successful, involving hundreds of University students in serving thousands of youth in ten local schools. Both also included substantial leadership development components for University students.

Despite the success of these programs, David Lindstrom (the Association’s new General Director since May of 1981) and the Board of Governors decided that the YMCA’s community programs [p. 136] and related staff should be spun-off to other agencies. Partners, VIS A VIS, and YESS were all spun-off to the Children’s Home and Aid Society of Illinois (CHASI) during the summer of 1984. Of all the community work developed during the 1973-1984 period, only Communiversity remained as a YMCA program.

Institutional Trends and Dynamics

Serious problems developed in the Association’s operating budget during the 1973-1984 period. While the annual budget more than doubled over the period, rising from $148,000 in 1974 to $331,000 in 1984, most years ended with significant deficits.⁴² Between 1973-1978, over $40,000 of deficits were accumulated, with an additional $65,000 racked up between 1983-84. Only the period from 1979-1982 ended in the black. While student membership averaged 117 and faculty-staff membership 411 during this period, contributions from members and alumni and friends fell far short of keeping up with expenses. The annual United Way allocation also dipped to only $2,000 in 1977 before it slowly rose back to its previous level of around $10,000. The only positive development with finances came from an endowment campaign. Launched in 1975, it succeeded in moving the market value of the endowment from $350,000 to $743,000 by 1983.

In addition to the financial troubles, there were notable changes in and serious problems with professional staff during this period. Changes included the restructuring of program staff described above, and the departure of Ed Nestingen, who retired at the end of 1978 after nearly 20 years on the staff (Ed remained on the YMCA staff as the part-time director of the Bailey Scholarship Fund until August of 1991). One of the problems with professional staff was a high turnover rate in program. Seventeen different persons held program staff positions during this period, with a few of these serving for one year or less.⁴³ The high number of program staff reflected problems with finances, along with experimentation with new staff patterns and structures.

The most serious professional staff problem developed in administration. In 1977, David Lindstrom was hired to fill the newly created position of Executive Director. Lindstrom, a Champaign [p. 137] native and former student president of the Association (1959-60), was a graduate of the University of Illinois and the Chicago Theological Seminary. He came to Illinois after holding several staff positions in the YMCA, including six years as Executive Director of the University of Missouri YMCA. As Executive Director at Illinois, Lindstrom’s responsibilities were to oversee operations, while General Director Harold Reinhart focused on the endowment campaign and annual contributions.

In January of 1981, Harold Reinhart retired. David Lindstrom became the new General Director in May of 1981. The position of Executive Director was eliminated, and a new Program Administrator position was created, filled by Fred Mastny, who had joined the staff as Program Director in 1979. In 1982, Lindstrom developed a proposal for a major capital campaign. The Board of Trustees decided to hire a firm to conduct a feasibility study before deciding whether or not to proceed. The study, completed in April of 1983, found significant problems with the Association’s image, concluding that it was not in a position to launch a successful campaign.

Under the surface, serious dissatisfaction and tensions had been brewing between and among staff and students. The problems grew so intense that Fred Mastny decided to resign in November of 1983. The following January, student president Sue Soenksen presented a “petition of no confidence” to the Board of Governors calling for an evaluation of David Lindstrom’s performance as General Director. While the chairperson of the Board ruled that her presentation was “out of order,” the students’ complaints were taken seriously. Over the next several weeks, the Board and its personnel committee pursued the matter in executive sessions.

Finally, on March 29, David Lindstrom submitted his resignation. Following Mastny’s and Lindstrom’s resignations, international program director Willie Seid and community program director Judy Checker resigned. During the summer of 1984, the remaining community programs (except Communiversity) and staff were spun-off, completing the turnover of the Association’s entire administrative and program staff. With a palpable sense of frustration and exhaustion, one of the most unique and painful periods [p. 138] in the Association’s history came to a close.

1984-1997

At the start of the 1984-85 academic year, the University YMCA faced several pressing problems. It needed to clarify its purpose and direction, rebuild its program and staff, and strengthen its fundraising. With respect to direction, the 1984-1997 period marked a clear return to a primary emphasis on the campus. Much less clarity existed, however, about the exact nature of the Association’s purpose, and how it ought to be expressed.

One of the major findings of the report from the fundraising feasibility study issued in April of 1983 was that the University YMCA had a “confused identity.” While many of the 186 persons who were interviewed for the study viewed the Association’s main purpose as “a forum for the exchange of moral and intellectual ideas,” many others declared that they simply did not know what the YMCA’s purpose was. A related finding of the study was the almost complete disappearance of interest in and support for the Association’s historic Christian purpose. The report concluded that

Although the current mission statement of the University Y expresses the open exploration of Christian values as an integral part of its mission, the extent of its importance was not revealed in the data. The Christian aspect does not appear to be a pressing issue. In final comments made by all survey respondents, the Christian issue was mentioned by only a handful. Only the Trustees voiced any interest in the Christian aspect of the University Y.⁴⁴

Work on clarifying the Association’s mission and goals began in July of 1984. Chris Swartout, the YMCA’s new Program Administrator, formed a group called the “Strategic Operations Plan Implementation Committee” (SOPIC) to review the existing mission and goals statement. While the committee did not recommend changing the mission statement that had been adopted in 1982, it drafted a new statement of goals and objectives which it presented to the Executive Committee in August of 1984. The [p. 139] full statement declared that

Learning and living at the University of Illinois provides students and faculty with a wide variety of experiences which are often unrelated or in conflict. The YMCA provides opportunities for experiences that help achieve a meaningful integration of this array of knowledge and skill, by focusing on the following goals and objectives:

1. Stimulate personal growth in meanings and religious/ethical values. (a) Encourage a questioning, challenging approach to the development of values in a Christian context; (b) promote self-awareness and self-esteem; (c) welcome expressions of differing viewpoints; and (d) support congruence between values and actions.

2. Foster good interpersonal and intergroup relationships. (a) Encourage openness, sharing, and active communication among individuals and groups; (b) encourage a wide variety of individuals and groups to participate in our activities; (c) give recognition to significant people, events, and ideas; and (d) maintain open, accessible organizational structures.

3. Advance international understandings. (a) Attract international students to YMCA programs; (b) promote dialogue between American and foreign students; (c) enhance understanding of other cultures and ways of life; (d) maintain contact with other local services for international students; and (e) encourage open exploration of democratic values.

4. Promote creative, responsible social action. (a) Identify community needs; (b) provide training in organizational skills; (c) supply space and support services for action-oriented projects; (d) involve skilled university and community organizers; (e) encourage voluntary groups seeking creative change; and (f) promote the YMCA as a place to explore, test, and implement ideas. [p. 140] 5. Provide integrative focal experiences for students. (a) Structure programs and services as integrating experiences; (b) maintain contact with student participants during and after their university years; and (c) provide opportunities for continuous involvement of former students in the University YMCA.

In all of the above, leadership development is encouraged by: identifying and recruiting persons with leadership potential; providing training in leadership skills; recognizing and rewarding leadership; increasing communication among leaders; and fostering multiple and diverse leadership opportunities.⁴⁵

The SOPIC statement was never formally adopted by the Association, but it was used by staff, Board, and volunteers as a guide for assessing new and existing program work. It was replaced in 1990 when the Board of Governors adopted a new statement of mission, goals, and objectives. The mission statement passed in 1990 declared that

The University YMCA shall challenge the mind and spirit of individuals and communities to develop and practice ethical principles and responsible leadership for social justice and the integrity of our natural world.⁴⁶

The statement of goals and objectives that accompanied the new mission statement was similar to that proposed by SOPIC:

Learning and living at the University of Illinois provides students and faculty with a wide variety of experiences which are often unrelated or in conflict. The YMCA provides opportunities for experiences that help to achieve a meaningful integration of this array of knowledge and skill, by focusing on the following goals and objectives.

1. Stimulate spiritual and ethical growth through: (a) Encouraging informed, questioning and challenging approach to the development of values in an inclusive, [p. 141] ecumenical context. (b) Promoting awareness of one’s relationship to oneself, others and the world. (c) Welcoming a diversity of viewpoints, expression and experience. (d) Advocating integral relationships between values, knowledge and actions through a variety of programs, both informational and experiential.

2. Foster good interpersonal and intergroup relationships through: (a) Inviting a wide variety of individuals and groups with differing backgrounds and perspectives to participate in our activities. (b) Encouraging openness, sharing, and active communication among persons and dialogue, conflict resolution and collaboration among groups. (c) Honoring the contributions of significant people, events and ideas. (d) Providing integrative focal experiences for students, faculty, staff, alumni and community.

3. Promote international and intercultural awareness and respect through: (a) Heightening awareness of international issues which will lead to World Peace with social justice and integrity of the natural world. (b) Promoting formal and informal dialogue between U. S. and International Students. (c) Developing experiential opportunities for fostering understanding of other cultures and ways of life. (d) Collaborating with other agencies and organizations which serve the needs of students who experience discrimination or disadvantage because of culture, gender, way of life, or other factors. (e) Maintaining the historical advocacy for meeting the special needs of international students and their families.

4. Promote social, political, and economic justice and the maintenance of the integrity of the natural world at the local, state and national levels through: (a) Heightening awareness of these issues through disciplined study, direct experience and cultural reflection. (b) Stimulating vigorous dialogue and debate about these issues from various points of view. (c) Encouraging [p. 142] creative, responsible social action at the grass roots level, where appropriate. (d) Engaging in advocacy as an Association with a specific action or a point of view, where appropriate.

In all of the above, leadership development is encouraged by: identifying and recruiting persons with leadership potential; providing training in leadership skills; recognizing and rewarding leadership; increasing communication among leaders; and fostering multiple and diverse leadership opportunities.

One of the notable aspects of the 1990 statement of mission, goals, and objectives was the absence of the word “Christian.” This was the first time in the Association’s history that this word did not appear in such statements. While the Christian emphasis had been pushed to the background in the statements of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, by 1990, it had disappeared altogether.

Another notable aspect of the 1990 statement was the inclusion under goal number four of a phrase that affirmed the Association’s right to engage in “advocacy as an Association with a specific action or a point of view, where appropriate.” This became a grounding point for a Board process related to taking a position on the growing controversy over “Chief Illiniwek,” the symbol or mascot for the University of Illinois that many believed to be racist. With encouragement from the University YWCA Board of Directors and the influence of a group called the “Coalition for a New Tradition,” the YMCA Board of Governors voted to take a formal position against the Chief. The YMCA Board said it believed that Chief Illiniwek, “though not intended to be disrespectful, is an inappropriate representation of Native American people and culture.”⁴⁷ Therefore, the Board decided to remove a portrait of Chief Illiniwek that was displayed in the K-Rooms, called on the University to end its support of the Chief, and committed itself to organizing and supporting educational activities related to Native American issues and perspectives. Several educational activities were subsequently organized or sponsored, including a panel discussion which helped inspire University [p. 143] of Illinois graduate student Jay Rosenstein to produce a documentary on the Chief Illiniwek issue. The documentary, titled “In Whose Honor?,” was broadcast nationally on PBS in July of 1997.

Mission and goals were changed one more time in the 1984-1997 period. In November of 1995, the Board of Governors adopted a slightly revised version of the mission and goals passed in 1990. The 1995 mission statement declared that

The University YMCA shall challenge and nurture the mind and spirit of individuals and communities to develop and practice ethical principles and responsible leadership for social justice and the integrity of our natural world.⁴⁸

The new statement of goals and objectives featured a return of a reference to the YMCA’s “Christian heritage.” It also removed the phrase that explicitly provided for the Association to engage in advocacy by taking a specific action or a point of view. This did not signal a reversal of the majority view that it is sometimes appropriate for the Association to take advocacy positions. It did, however, reflect a kind of compromise between those few who felt that the Association should never officially engage in advocacy or take positions on issues, and the majority who believed it was both necessary and important to reserve such a right for certain occasions. Leaving the phrase out signaled two things, which were not necessarily compatible: first, that taking advocacy positions should not be highlighted or encouraged by a formal statement, and second, that since the right to take such positions was considered to be an option that was always available to the Board, no explicit phrase acknowledging such a right was needed.

The new statement of goals and objectives declared that

Persons both on and beyond the University of Illinois campus participate in a wide variety of social, political, and educational experiences. These experiences can be incomplete, unrelated, or in conflict for many persons or groups, limiting their ability to achieve wholeness and purpose of life. The YMCA at the University of Illinois provides new and challenging opportunities that help to expand the vision, deepen [p. 144] the spirituality, and achieve a more meaningful integration of the array of ideas, knowledge, and skills gained from these experiences. To do this, the University YMCA focuses on the following goals and objectives.

1. Stimulate spiritual, intellectual, and ethical growth through: Encouraging an informed, questioning, and challenging approach to the development of values in an inclusive, ecumenical context that reflects both the YMCA’s Christian heritage and its continuing commitment to openness to other faiths or life experiences; promoting awareness of one’s relationship to oneself, others, and the world; facilitating a diversity of viewpoints, expressions, and experiences; and advocating integration of values, knowledge, and actions through informational and experiential programs.

2. Foster good interpersonal and intergroup relationships through: Inviting individuals and groups with differing backgrounds and perspectives to join in YMCA activities; encouraging openness, sharing, active communication, and collaboration among groups and individuals; honoring the contributions of groups, individuals, events, and ideas; and providing integrative experiences among students, faculty, staff, alumni, and wider communities.

3. Promote international and intercultural awareness and respect through: Increasing awareness of international issues and working for world peace, social and environmental justice; promoting formal and informal interaction and dialogue between citizens of the U.S. and the international community; maintaining the YMCA legacy of advocating for the well-being of international students and their families; developing experiential opportunities for fostering understanding of other cultures and promoting a spirit of mutual community development; and collaborating with other agencies and organizations [p. 145] which serve the needs of students and others who experience discrimination or disadvantage because of culture, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or other factors.

4. Encourage leadership development in all of our work through: Identifying and recruiting persons with leadership potential and diverse backgrounds; providing training in leadership skills; fostering multiple and diverse leadership opportunities; recognizing and rewarding leadership; and increasing communication among leaders.

5. Promote social, political, and economic justice and the maintenance of the integrity of the natural world through: Heightening awareness of these issues at all levels through disciplined study, direct experience, and critical reflection; stimulating vigorous dialogue and debate about these issues; and encouraging creative and responsible social action, especially at the grass roots level.

Changes in Program

After the complete turnover of program and executive staff and the spin-off of Partners, YESS, and VIS A VIS, the University YMCA was left with only a handful of programs. At the start of the 1984-1997 period, the only on-going programs of substance the YMCA had were Friday Forum, Know Your University, Communiversity, and SECS. But something of the old spirit and promise of the Association still lived, and it continued to attract many staff, students, faculty, and community members who committed themselves to its renewal. I was one of these persons. I joined the staff as Program Director in December of 1984, and served in that position for over eight years. The account of the work and life of the Association provided here is thus in large part informed by my own experience.

If the 1958-1973 period can be characterized as a time when the University YMCA aimed at becoming an important intellectual religious center of the campus, the 1984-1997 period can be [p. 146] characterized as a time when it aimed at becoming an important center for dialogue, reflection, and action on the key social and political issues of the times. The mission statement adopted in 1982 was successfully brought to life in the work that was developed during this period. Following this mission, the University YMCA became primarily a political rather than a religious or an intellectual center of the campus. But it also kept an important part of the historic religious purpose of the Association alive in seeking to bring balance to the life and work of the campus community, a balance in which ethical, moral, spiritual, and religious concerns—including those informed by or grounded in Christianity—could be heard, appreciated, and applied.

In September of 1984, Program Administrator Chris Swartout remarked to the Board of Governors that it was “embarrassing” that the Association’s best work was by and for faculty members rather than students. As the self-study committee had concluded in 1958, Swartout and the SOPIC committee found in 1984 that once again, work with undergraduate students was weak. Rebuilding student work became one of the Association’s highest priorities.

The mid 1980s marked the beginning of a major reawakening of student activism at the University of Illinois. Three strands of this new activism were brought together at the University YMCA, giving birth to a new set of programs and activities. One strand focused on community service or “service learning,” one on “social justice,” and one on the environment. The YMCA, often in partnership with the University YWCA, became a force for creating coalitions across these different strands and the various groups they spawned. The building became a kind of town meeting hall, where a variety of open forums, teach-ins, and conferences were frequently held on critical social and political issues.

The founding at the YMCA of a student group called the Progressive Student Union (PSU) in early 1985 reflected the move towards coalition building. PSU, which defined a “progressive” as “one who seeks a more comprehensive awareness of social issues through inquiry and debate,” was composed of a diverse collection of students interested in a broad range of issues.⁴⁹ It sponsored a [p. 147] political film series, a regular newspaper called Free Thought, and discussions and actions on a variety of contemporary issues. For example, to protest against cuts in student loans, which were proposed on the grounds that students were supposedly spending loan money on vacations to Florida and stereos rather than tuition, PSU staged a demonstration on the University quadrangle. Poking fun at those who were calling for the cuts, they named the protest a “Student Loan Beach Bash.”

Many new student programs were either developed at or supported by the University YMCA during the 1984-1997 period. These included U & I Can (later called the Belize Project), which developed educational programs about Central America and raised money to deliver medical supplies to Belize, a Central American country facing a refugee crisis; Students for Mutual Arms Reduction Today (SMART), a group that organized action and education programs in support of arms control and the elimination of nuclear weapons; Students for Matthew House, a group of students who volunteered at a Champaign program devoted to serving low-income children; Illinois Student Pugwash, a local chapter of an international student group devoted to exploring the social impact of science and technology; Newspace, a program that created an art gallery in the YMCA where students could show their work; the Rainforest Action Coalition; Stop Sexual Assaults; the Champaign-Urbana Coalition for the Homeless; Oxfam America; the Champaign-Urbana Coalition Against Apartheid (CUCAA); the American Friends Service Committee (AFS); Internships for Action (INFACT); Student Voice; and the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO). Each of these programs received some combination of support and counsel from the program staff, office space, and free use of the building.

Picking up on a new wave of interest in the environment, SECS dramatically expanded its membership and activities in the late 1980s. The group created a regular journal called Environmental Perspectives (renamed Resources in 1990), and developed a number of action and educational projects related to local, state, and national issues. Among SECS’s many notable initiatives and accomplishments during this period were efforts to influence emissions [p. 148] regulations and monitoring policies on the University’s garbage incinerator; educational programs in local schools on recycling; the hosting of Catalyst, a national conference of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) held in the fall of 1990 that drew 7,000 students to Champaign and featured presentations by Helen Caldicott, Jesse Jackson, Ceasar Chavez, Winona LaDuke, Robert Redford, and Ralph Nader; a campaign against the siting of a low-level nuclear waste dump in Martinsville, a small town located a few hours south of Champaign; prairie restoration including a new group called Red Bison; and organizing around the development of Champaign County’s twenty-year solid waste plan. One effort that was especially successful was a campaign led by SECS’s energy committee aimed at getting the University to adopt an energy conservation policy. The committee succeeded in passing a student referendum on the issue in the spring of 1991. It then conducted extensive research on the subject and produced a report which resulted in a presentation of their findings and recommendations to Chancellor Morton Weir in March of 1992. Three of the five proposals suggested by SECS were eventually enacted by the University. In addition, two members of SECS were appointed to serve on a new campus-wide Advisory Committee focused on energy issues.

International work was also revitalized during the 1984-1997 period. Coffee hours, receptions for new students, forums on various political issues, and an annual international dinner were organized. In addition, program staff member Maria Somma put great energy into establishing relationships with the Office of International Affairs (OISA) and many international student organizations, which led the YMCA to host or sponsor numerous special events and programs. Working with the Hillel Foundation, the Middle East Solidarity Committee, and other groups, Somma put special effort into creating educational programs and dialogues on the situation in the Middle East. Another international program organized during this time was a series of presentations and discussions held in 1989 called the “International Development Education Program.” Funded in part by a grant from the YMCA of the USA, it opened with a lecture by Frances Moore Lappé, who [p. 149] filled the University’s Foellinger Auditorium with students and faculty who came to hear her speak about hunger, democracy, and international development policies.

In response to the success of a Friday Forum series on Central America held during the fall, 1984 semester, the YMCA organized an “Encore Forum” series in 1985 similar to Friday Forum. Held on Thursdays at noon, Encore Forums were developed on themes related to the previous semester’s Friday Forum series. A different student organization co-sponsored each series with the YMCA. Series themes included “Latin America: A Woman’s Perspective”; “Arms Control: A Discussion of Its Implications”; and “Agricultural Technology and Social Change.”

The 1984-1997 period brought a strong renewal of interest in racial justice issues by students involved in the YMCA. In 1988, “Racism ’88,” a series of forums on racism was organized with the University YWCA. The YMCA and YWCA also lent their support to a group of students working to try to end the use of “Chief Illiniwek” as the University’s mascot. Called the Coalition for a New Tradition (CNT), the group brought Native American speakers to campus and organized various education and action projects.

The strongest new student program to emerge in this period was “Alternative Spring Break” (ASB), created by Maria Somma in the spring of 1989. The ASB idea, which was adapted from similar programs at other student YMCAs, was to provide students with opportunities to work with social-change oriented groups in various communities around the country during spring break. The program was described this way in 1995:

Shattering stereotypes, expanding and challenging understandings of injustice, and channeling energies toward positive change: these are the goals of Alternative Spring Break. In the course of two semesters, ASB involves planning, recruitment, community building, experiential learning, and hands-on work that changes lives. Groups of participants examine current social issues through orientation and training followed by an immersion experience over the University spring break and follow-up evaluation.⁵⁰

[p. 150] For the first ASB trip in 1989, 22 students traveled to Brownsville, Texas to work with organizations related to Central American refugees. The second year, the program expanded to include 92 students on three different trips: the Texas-Mexico border; Harlem, New York; and the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Since then, ASB has, along with SECS, become the University YMCA’s largest student program. In 1997, over 130 students participated in twelve ASB trips. Among other places, students traveled to Minneapolis to work with the Aliveness Project on issues related to HIV/AIDS and the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community; to East St. Louis to work with a collaborative action-research project between the University of Illinois and the community on social and economic renewal; to Enfield, North Carolina, to work with Teach for America in a low-income rural school district; and to inner-city Detroit, to work on peace education with an organization called Save Our Sons and Daughters.

Work by and for faculty changed very little in the 1984-1997 period. Friday Forum and Know Your University continued throughout the period without dramatic changes in either form or attendance. The only change came in sponsorships. The University YWCA dropped its co-sponsorship of Friday Forum in 1984. New co-sponsors were added from various campus ministries. In 1997, the co-sponsors included the McKinley Foundation, the Illinois Disciples Foundation, and the Wesley Foundation. Series topics in this period included “The U.S. and Central America: Que Pasa?”; “Technology Today: Humane Uses, Human Abuses”; “The Many Faces of the Soviet Union”; “The Three R’s of Science: Resources, Research, and Responsibility”; “Our Environment, Our Future”; “Politics in the Name of God”; “Values, Culture, and the Media”; “Responding to Racism”; “The Impact of the Women’s Movement”; “Through Women’s Eyes”; “Personal Faith and Social Force: Understanding the Continuing Impact of Christianity on U.S. Society”; “Reforming Health Care: The National Debate”; and “Democracy in the USA: Continuities and Contradictions.”

Two new programs linking faculty, students, and alumni were created during this period. The first was the “Nestingen Symposium,” [p. 151] created in 1991 in honor of Ed Nestingen’s second retirement. It involves an intergenerational group of faculty, students, alumni, and community members each fall in exploring a social action or education-related theme. Themes explored so far include “Education for Empowering the Human Spirit”; “Spirit, Justice, and Education”; “Environmental Concerns and Strategies”; “Service-Learning”; “The Death of Scientific Determinism”; “Campus Speech: Academic Freedom, Pornography, and Hate”; and “Education Today: How Can It Rekindle Civic Responsibility?” The second was an annual series of events designed to express some combination of science, the arts, and ecology, made possible by the Raymond S. Vogel Memorial Fund. Vogel was a Senior Research Chemist at the University of Illinois who dedicated his life to the arts as well as the sciences. The inaugural event in the series, held in October of 1996, featured a photoessay by Vogel entitled “The Great Century of Science,” and a lecture by Frederick Brech, retired physicist and consultant to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, on “Applications of Science in Examination of Works of Art.” In September, 1997, Rutgers University conservation biologist David Ehrenfeld’s presentation on “The Coming Collapse of the Age of Technology” filled Latzer Hall, and he met the next day with faculty and student groups on campus.

The YMCA’s community-oriented work during this period continued to be anchored by Communiversity, though it had diminished in size considerably since the early 1980s. By the mid 1990s it enrolled about 300 people per semester in an average of 45 classes. The most successful new community program to be added during the 1984-1997 period was Senior Friends, a program designed to establish friendships between University students and residents in local nursing homes. Created in 1986, it involved hundreds of students before it diminished in size in the early 1990s. Other community initiatives that were attempted during this period include the Working Media Coalition and the Youth Video Project. While each of these initiatives was begun with high hopes, neither achieved much lasting success. In keeping with the decision in 1984 to maintain a campus-centered focus, efforts to expand community work during this period received [p. 152] only minimal attention and resources.

Institutional Trends and Dynamics

Matters related to the Association’s staff and finances saw mixed results during the 1984-1997 period. Turnover in executive and program staff continued to be a problem. After David Lindstrom left the staff at the end of April, 1984, Ed Nestingen served as interim Executive Director. In September of 1984, Mark Johnson, a graduate of Wooster College and Columbia University with a Ph.D. in Sociology and international experience in the YMCA, became the next Executive Director. Johnson resigned in May of 1989 to accept a position as Executive Director of the Silver Bay Association, a YMCA conference center in Silver Bay, New York. John Jordan, an ordained campus minister in the United Methodist Church and a Rhodes Scholar with degrees from Illinois Wesleyan University, Oxford University, and Drew University Theological School, became the next Executive Director in January of 1990. A total of fourteen different persons held program staff positions during this period, serving full-time or part-time, anywhere from a few months to over eight years.⁵¹

There were major accomplishments as well as continuing problems with the Association’s finances in this period. Under both Johnson and Jordan, funds were raised from contributors that enabled several major building renovation projects to be accomplished, including the installation of a new boiler and new roofs, plus some new wiring, carpets, drapes, and tuckpointing. A Space Utilization Task Force was formed in 1984 to explore patterns of building use and consider possible changes. In 1984 the pews were removed from the Wilson Memorial Chapel, which had received little use in recent years, in order to allow the space to be used for a greater variety of purposes. When the managers of the K-Room restaurant in the basement left in 1985, the Association decided to relocate the restaurant. In January of 1986, the “Y Eatery” opened for business in a renovated kitchen on the first floor. Operated under lease by Mayuree Sciacca, it specializes in Thai food and has become quite popular. The largest renovations included the transformation of the K-Room from a restaurant to a set of multipurpose [p. 153] program rooms, completed in January of 1988 through a gift from Marion and Vernon Piper, daughter and son-in-law of Albert Kaeser, and the replacement of all of the building’s movable windows during 1990-95, thanks to a series of special contributions by Ralph and Evelyn Davis.

The situation with the annual operating budget was problematic throughout the entire 1984-1997 period. The annual budget went from $284,000 in 1985 to $380,000 in 1997. Although a full-time Development Director was hired in 1987, over $150,000 in deficits were accumulated during 1985-1992. When added to the $111,000 in deficits that still remained on the books from the period before 1985, the Association faced a total accumulated internal deficit in 1992 of more than $261,000. While annual contributions from individuals were successfully increased during this period, the rise in income did not keep pace with expenses. In addition, in 1993 the YMCA lost its funding from United Way, which had totaled $11,000 a year. A combination of budget problems and strategic decisions led the Association to reduce its Development Director position to half-time in 1993.

In 1992, a 120th Anniversary Major Funds Campaign was launched in an effort to raise $1,200,000 to pay off the deficit, complete a series of building renovations, increase the size of the endowment, and create a fund for new program development. In advance of the campaign, the Association conducted a long-range program planning process. The process led to the adoption of a plan that called for the YMCA to focus on five priorities: grounding program work in lessons from the history of social justice movements; deepening and sharpening spirituality; strengthening community; providing a framework for examining the effects and reality of privilege; and teaching key skills and concepts related to citizenship and public life.

While the goal of the Major Funds Campaign was not met, it was considered a success. Over $650,000 in new funds were raised. From these funds, the deficit was retired, several additional renovations to the building were made, some new program activities were subsidized, and the market value of the endowment was substantially increased. By 1997, a combination of the Major Funds [p. 154] Campaign, bequests, and growth of investments brought the total market value of the endowment and other invested reserves to more than $2 million.

With a new mission and an improved (if still troubled) financial situation, the University YMCA stands ready in 1997 to launch itself into a new era of work. The new mission, however, is less a rallying cry for clear and concrete action than it is a gesture towards a kind of work and role which has yet to be fully understood or pursued. There is, in fact, a marked uncertainty about exactly what the work and role of the Association ought to be in today’s context. Some are calling for a renewed focus on Christianity or some sort of inclusive spirituality, while others are calling for a deeper commitment to social justice or new forms of service. Some are seeking ways to combine all of these. To date, no clear resolution of the choices the Association faces has been achieved.

4.3 Discussion

In the 1958-1997 era, there were, in effect, three different University YMCAs. Each had a distinctly different sense of purpose, and each used a different language to describe it. Each featured at least one major break with the past, although each also either retrieved or carried forward something of the spirit and shape of the Association’s historic work and promise.

The University YMCA that existed during the 1958-1973 period attempted the difficult task of simultaneously embracing religious pluralism while maintaining its grounding in a liberal Protestant Christianity. It self-consciously aimed at becoming the “intellectual religious” center of the campus. It developed a statement of purpose that focused on providing an atmosphere “congenial to an unlimited search for religious meaning,” which represented a remarkably sharp break with the old—and deliberately limited—purpose of leading men to “faith in God through Jesus Christ.” Yet despite this, the Association carried forward many of the same core programs that had been developed in the early part of the century: intense personal work with a small group of student leaders in the Student Cabinet, friendly relations work with international students, Freshman Camp, and Faculty Forum.

[p. 155] While the embrace of religious pluralism suggested the need for a new direction, the underlying beliefs about the Association’s role and work on the University of Illinois campus remained consistent with previous eras. This was brought out by General Secretary J. Frederick Miller in an article published in May of 1961 in the Y’s Indian. The article, titled “The Case for the U. of I. YMCA,” was framed as a response to the question, “In this time of world unrest, what is the role of the Student YMCA?” Miller’s answer was nearly identical to what I imagine Henry Wilson’s answer would have been: to counter the threat of secularism by bringing a religious influence to bear upon University life, and to bring spiritual values to civic life. Miller wrote that

whatever you can say against the teaching of religion, particularly of the Christian faith, the fact remains that its moral force was, and is, a stabilizing force, the lack of which has created a spiritual vacuum into which other forces by no means so desirable in their effects are bound, by the nature of things, to flow. It is this vacuum that organizations such as the Young Men’s Christian Association, privately supported and maintained, must fill, particularly such YMCAs as this one is, a Student YMCA, if the nation is not to collapse from lack of moral order.⁵²

As the above passage shows, Miller’s argument about the role of the University YMCA had a familiar blend of both personal and public, of spiritual and civic dimensions. While he believed it was of primary importance for the YMCA to focus its work on the development of Christian faith and character in individual students, he also believed—as did John R. Mott, David Kinley, and Henry Wilson—that this personal work had a larger public significance or promise. He wrote that the University YMCA was important because “we teach those who will be the teachers, the leaders, the intellectual and Christian young men upon whom, in the years to come, will rest the welfare of this nation.” The University YMCA’s “ultimate” goal, Miller declared, is to “develop an intellectually vigorous, spiritually strengthened, morally invulnerable leadership for our State and our Nation.” Campus ministries [p. 156] and student YMCAs provided, as Miller put it, “effective means of checking descent into moral and spiritual chaos.” The “effective means” was the teaching of the Christian faith. He wrote that a “strenuous effort must be redirected to the study of Christian history, Christian theology, and Christian faith.”

There was nothing in Miller’s remarks to suggest an embrace of Sherwood Eddy’s brand of the Social Gospel, which called on the YMCA to become a force for promoting structural economic and political change. Miller viewed the University YMCA—and Christianity—not as a radical or revolutionary force, but as a moderating force. “Walking the middle way, between the wild-eyed left, and the fanatic right,” he proclaimed,

we are the moderates, the balancing force, the stabilizer which can, and should, check the inherent violences of the destructionists on the one hand, who would tear down everything, and the rigid unyielding status quo forces on the other hand, who would change nothing, regardless of how much it needed change.⁵³

For many students and faculty members, Miller’s argument probably succeeded in establishing a compelling case for the University YMCA’s role and importance on the University of Illinois campus. As the decade unfolded, however, the strength of Miller’s case faded. By the late 60s and early 70s, few students would be stirred to passionate involvement either by the rallying call, “We are the moderates,” or by a program based on a rigorous study of Christian history, theology, and faith. However laudable and well-motivated Miller’s ideas were, they were increasingly out of tune with the times. While Miller wrote of checking and stabilizing, of balancing and moderating, of law and order, many students (and faculty) were beginning to write and speak of shaking things up, of breaking free from past conventions, from a social order that they believed stifled rather than nurtured creativity, love, freedom, justice, and democracy. This was a key message in SDS’s Port Huron Statement, written and published in 1962. Before long, it was a message students carried with them through the front door of the University YMCA. It was hinted at as early as 1962, when John [p. 157] Gwinn, the student president for 1962-63, declared that “The Y in its concern for the student must bring to the fore the social and political revolutions which are in progress so that the student may respond.”⁵⁴

Calls for radical change in student YMCAs and YWCAs began appearing in the years that directly preceded the 1958-1973 period. One such call, a paper by A. L. Kershaw titled “The New Frontier for the Student YMCA and YWCA,” was published in 1955 by the National Student Council of the YMCA and YWCA. It was apparently widely read. The University YMCA’s first self-study committee made reference to it when it issued its final report in May of 1959. Kershaw was a popular student YMCA conference leader, a former faculty member at the Chicago Theological Seminary, and a minister of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church of Oxford, Ohio. He was convinced that the survival of student YMCAs was contingent on their willingness to open themselves to religious pluralism and to a radical change in language and work. Student YMCAs needed, in his view, to engage in serious study and reflection of the complexities of modern life, including the turn towards “intellectual anarchy” and the collapse of students’ trust in any unqualified good, truth, or ideal.

Kershaw believed that most student YMCAs in the mid 1950s were unprepared to face the complex, challenging realities of the times. He wrote sarcastically that they “resemble a kind of innocuous postgraduate Sunday School class much more than a powerhouse that pushes the intellectual juice through all the dark places of campus life. The $64,000 questions of Reichenbach, Dewey, Freud and Sartre are met with answers from a dime coloring book.” Drawing on Paul Tillich’s prophetic work, he called on student YMCAs to “make Christ known in fresh and startling ways.” The “new frontier” the student YMCAs faced, he declared, does not necessarily require the use of “religious words, nor even to urge students to become Christians. God’s love and judgment can be perceived in many modes outside religious symbols.” The most important thing for student YMCAs to do, according to Kershaw, was to engage students in deep reflection on a set of fundamental questions:

[p. 158] Who am I as a whole person? How am I related to other persons? What is that creative source of life that lies beyond me, upon which I am dependent? Among the many valuable things in life, what is the most important that deserves my devoting myself, my affection and my energy to it?⁵⁵

The statement of purpose passed by the University YMCA in 1961 (quoted above) closely resembled Kershaw’s views. In 1963, the National Student Council of YMCAs adopted a new statement of purpose that also echoed Kershaw. It declared that

Student YMCAs, part of a world-wide Christian Movement, seek to help persons to study and work toward rich and full life and a free and just society. They seek to attract and unite in active fellowship and service persons of all Christian confessions, adherents of other faiths and those who affirm no religious belief. They are committed to encouraging individuals in their search for life purpose to confront the power and relevance of the Christian faith.⁵⁶

Through Ed Nestingen’s work and influence, the University YMCA followed this national purpose almost exactly. Nestingen, who received a sophisticated theological education at Union Theological Seminary, spent countless hours from 1959 until the end of the 1960s pursuing this purpose by working through questions similar to the ones named by Kershaw with hundreds of students in highly creative, innovative ways. But by the early 1970s, a program built around an introspective “search for religious meaning” had lost much of its appeal. The Student Cabinet was eliminated in 1971, leaving the Association without the leadership group that served in previous years as the key focal point of such work. Additionally, the national YMCA student movement, which had linked together and inspired associations from around the world since the 1870s to conduct a largely religious program, had died a few years earlier. Its death was not unique; it was paralleled by what Douglas Sloan has described as the “collapse” of the post World War II drive by mainline Protestant churches to deepen and expand [p. 159] its campus ministry work.⁵⁷

The death of the YMCA student movement came in 1968, after years of frustration and conflict between students and the national YMCA structure and leadership (the “parent body,” as it was called). Students voted at their last annual conference in 1968 in Boston to dissolve the National Student Council of YMCAs (NSCY). They set up a new, more independent “Student Caucus,” devoted, as one student declared, to awakening “the larger YMCA movement to the urgent necessity for social renewal and change.”⁵⁸ The Student Caucus revitalized Sherwood Eddy’s view of the work of the YMCA. They wrote a set of goals that included combating racism and promoting university reform, and declared that “We will work to change the socio-economic political structure that creates and maintains violence and militarism.”⁵⁹ Their efforts failed, however, and in 1970, the student department of the national YMCA was closed. The decline in the number of student Associations during this period was dramatic. While there were 380 student YMCAs in 1960, by 1970, the number had plummeted to fewer than 100. By the mid 1970s, it dropped below 30.⁶⁰ Several attempts were made to revive and expand student YMCA work in the 1980s and 90s, but they achieved limited success. The national YMCA’s interest in supporting student work was weak, and the energy which once flowed from a vital world movement was gone.⁶¹ The total number of student associations never rose above 40 after the mid 1970s. In 1997, fewer than 20 are recorded as active student associations.

In the 1973-1984 period, without the benefit of the support and inspiration of an international student movement, the University YMCA turned its focus outward, away from religious introspection. It adopted a purpose statement in 1974 that shifted religion from the center of its work to the background. The religious dimension of the YMCA was now described vaguely as a “Christian heritage” which in some uncertain way the Association intended to “recognize.” The center of the new purpose was the work of “enlisting all concerned persons in meeting the needs of our campus and community through study, discussion, understanding, and purposeful action.” With the creation of SECS and the [p. 160] enormous Youth Service Clearinghouse program, the work of the Association turned away from deep, individualized reflection aimed at shaping the character and faith of future leaders. Instead, it emphasized social action and the delivery of community services.

In May of 1976, General Director Harold Reinhart declared that “It’s a completely different campus from several years ago.” As the campus changed, so did the YMCA. It was no longer the “intellectual religious center” it was in the 1960s, nor was it the religious movement it had aimed to be under Henry Wilson. Now, as Reinhart put it in a statement to the Board in March of 1977, the University YMCA was a “human services organization.” The old religious language had been replaced by a social work language. David Lindstrom explained what this meant in terms of the Association’s work and role in a passage from a capital campaign proposal written in 1982:

The University of Illinois YMCA creatively affects our society in three major ways. First, we are involved in training volunteers and assisting them in understanding the ingredients of healthy citizenship and helpful assistance to others. Second, we’re involved in providing community services, from teaching youngsters in the schools to assisting youth in securing employment. Third, we are involved in innovating new program areas and helping volunteers learn principles of community organization from the ground up.⁶²

Behind or underneath the changes of the 1973-1984 period, the Association continued to pursue elements of its historic work. With a different balance and language than in years past, the promise of association at the University YMCA continued to include both spiritual and civic dimensions. Work with international students was continued, though at a much lower level; work with faculty continued through Friday Forum and Know Your University; and individual students continued to find support and encouragement for exploring their personal values and sense of life purpose.

The 1984-1997 period brought a different mix of change and continuity with respect to the Association’s work and role. It featured [p. 161] a shift in focus back to the campus and an explicit exploration of spiritual concerns, but it also included a commitment to social change that was of a different character than any of the previous eras. Each of these was touched on in a 1988 article by Executive Director Mark Johnson. Signaling a renewal of the commitment to make the University YMCA a force for affecting the University, Johnson wrote that

The concerns our programs serve were concerns 100 years ago, and will be concerns 100 years from now. The nurturing of the spirit, the refinement of responsible citizenship, the creation and cementing of community, these are recurring, vital concerns. We have a primary mission to the academic enterprise, the educational community. Is the curriculum adequately meeting the needs of individuals to develop their intellectual, their spiritual, their moral, and their social sensitivities? Are students graduating to levels of service and responsibility they would not have achieved without this experience? We asked these questions directly in forums on the quality of undergraduate education at the University of Illinois. And we have provided a platform and support for on-going attention to these questions. We are concerned that the “issues” of the day be seen as “opportunities” for creative and responsible social change, for improving the world.⁶³

Maynard Brichford, chair of the Board of Governors, wrote in 1988 of the Association’s role and work in similar terms. He declared that

The mission of the YMCA is one of continuous confrontation. Ethical issues are found in every academic discipline, every interdisciplinary venture, every curricular innovation and every public policy. In a free and pluralistic society, the university community cannot avoid the implications of its learning and research for our society and for the world. For millennia, persons of faith have been under an obligation to apply their beliefs by questioning public policy and private ethics. The future is a challenge to be faced. Builders, laborers and leaders are needed who can balance freedom, justice, peace and welfare in shaping the world of the 21st century. As an [p. 162] institution, the University YMCA provides a rich heritage of responsible experience in weighing the moral consequences of our actions.⁶⁴

In the 1990s, two dimensions of the University YMCA’s work and role became especially important. First, the Association attempted to become an “open forum,” a center for debate and dialogue of timely social and political issues that included and considered multiple perspectives. While its building was a tremendous asset for hosting debates and forums, both staff and volunteers played key organizing roles in setting them up. Second, the Association aimed at creating a supportive environment for students who wish to address issues of social justice. In part, the promise of this work has been understood in terms of personal spiritual development. As Darrell Hartweg, chair of the Board of Trustees, has written,

Association with the Y allows students the opportunity to try their wings, to test new and sometimes radical thinking, to become involved with community projects that can demonstrate that the individual can make a difference in the lives of other human beings. The Y, through its programs, allows the student the opportunity to raise moral and religious issues and to search for his or her own individual answers to those issues. The Y provides a place for spiritual growth and development.⁶⁵

But in the 1990s the University YMCA has also been understood, especially by students and program staff members, as holding promise of fostering political growth and development.

In recent years, tensions and disagreements have emerged over the question of what the appropriate balance ought to be between political and spiritual development. The meaning and relevance of the Association’s Christian heritage has been one of the sources of these tensions. What is beginning to emerge from discussions over this question is a growing sense that the most important issue is not one of balance but one of integration and connection. In response to the question of the meaning of the “C” in the YMCA, [p. 163] Philip Martin, a member of the Board of Trustees, wrote that

I cannot speak of shoulds when it comes to the question of the place of “Christian” in the name or mission of the YMCA. I would rather start at a different point. I can only imagine the YMCA at Illinois as a community where people are encouraged to seek wholeness—to discover connections among the spiritual, moral, intellectual and practical dimensions of their lives.⁶⁶

To start at this point is to continue on the path the Association has traveled for nearly 125 years. While language, emphasis, people, and context have changed and will continue to change, the search for wholeness has endured.

¹ Quoted in Edward P. Morgan, The 60s Experience: Hard Lessons about Modern America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991), p. 86.

² Clark Kerr, The Uses of the University (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963, 1995), p. 92.

³ The full text of The Port Huron Statement is included in James Miller, Democracy Is in the Streets: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987, 1994), pp. 329-374.

⁴ C. Wright Mills, White Collar (New York: Oxford University Press, 1951), p. xviii.

⁵ See C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956), pp. 298-324, and John Dewey, The Public and Its Problems (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1927), especially chapter IV.

⁶ SDS, The Port Huron Statement, in James Miller (1987, 1994), p. 336.

⁷ Quoted in Harold Hannah, One Hundred Years of Action: The University of Illinois YMCA, 1873-1873 (Champaign: University YMCA, 1973), p. 82. The author and date of this statement are uncertain. It was probably made sometime between 1958-1965.

⁸ Mills (1951), p. xvi.

⁹ Article II, Constitution and By-Laws of the Young Men’s Christian Association of the University of Illinois (1923), p. 1.

¹⁰ Article III, Constitution and By-Laws of the Young Men’s Christian Association of the University of Illinois (1961), p. 1.

¹¹ Report of the Program Study Committee, September 27, 1954.

¹² Minutes, Board of Directors, September 17, 1956, p. 4.

¹³ “New Program Emphases Being Planned: Intellectual Religious Center Proposed.” Y’s Indian, December, 1957, p. 1.

¹⁴ Minutes, Board of Directors, April 20, 1959, p. 3.

¹⁵ Tom Chandler, “The Y’s Concern.” Y’s Indian, February, 1959, p. 2.

¹⁶ “Final Report on Undergraduate Program,” May, 1959, p. 2. The quote from Rev. Kershaw was drawn from A. L. Kershaw, The New Frontier for the Student YMCA and YWCA (New York: National Student Council of the YMCA and YWCA, 1955), p. 11.

¹⁷ Article III, Constitution and By-Laws of the Young Men’s Christian Association of the University of Illinois (1961), p. 3.

¹⁸ John Price, “The Y’s Concern.” Y’s Indian, December, 1960, p. 2.

¹⁹ Bruce Larson, an active member of the self-study committee, has questioned the accuracy of this claim. He remembers little serious work with graduate students during this time, and doubts that John Price had any role in staffing any work that might have been done. This might account for the absence of articles on graduate student work in the Y’s Indian.

²⁰ Undated paper, “From Freshman Camp to Freshman Conference.” It should be noted that Freshman Camp had a history of dealing with both serious and “fun” matters. Freshman Camp, like the YMCA summer camps at Lake Geneva, historically included serious discussions and presentations on matters of religious faith, higher education, and social issues. Thus, the change made in the 1960s should not be viewed as entirely new.

²¹ Minutes, Board of Directors, September 18, 1968.

²² Minutes, Board of Directors, November 27, 1963.

²³ “Huston Smith, MIT, Lauds YMCA Program.” Y’s Indian, December, 1960, p. 4.

²⁴ “Pal Program,” undated flier, probably printed around 1963.

²⁵ “A Proposal or a Parent Guided Pal Program for Champaign-Urbana Youngsters and U. of I. Students,” 1970, p. 1.

²⁶ Paul M. Limbert, New Perspectives for the YMCA (New York: Association Press, 1964), p. 171.

²⁷ Minutes, Board of Directors, November 16, 1967.

²⁸ Minutes, Board of Directors, March 24, 1966.

²⁹ “Report of the YMCA Self-Study Committee,” May, 1968.

³⁰ “The U. of I. YMCA and Controversial Issues,” October 12, 1971.

³¹ Jim Lukas, “‘Y’ Celebrates 100th Anniversary.” Champaign News Gazette, April 30, 1973.

³² Quoted in “The YMCA Looks to the Future.” Y’s Indian, June, 1973, p. 1.

³³ “Board Sets Program Objectives.” Y’s Indian, June, 1974, p. 1. It is interesting to note that this new purpose statement did not replace the purpose statement passed in 1961 in the Association’s Constitution. In fact, the 1961 statement, as of August of 1997, was still in place as the “official” statement of purpose in the Constitution, even though it had long since ceased to be used as a guide to programming and governance.

³⁴ Ibid.

³⁵ Minutes, Board of Trustees, November 16, 1977.

³⁶ “Operational Goals for the YMCA: 1980-1982.” Passed by the Board of Directors on October 18, 1979.

³⁷ Minutes, Board of Directors, September 29, 1982.

³⁸ This was Ed Nestingen’s description, taken from Friday Forum Committee minutes, April 1, 1976.

³⁹ Minutes, Board of Directors, May 9, 1975.

⁴⁰ Youth Service Clearinghouse, undated brochure.

⁴¹ Minutes, Executive Committee, December 2, 1980; Board of Governors, December 9, 1980.

⁴² The budget for the Youth Service Clearinghouse (YSC) was integrated into the regular YMCA budget for a time, pushing the total budget over $400,000. The figures named here do not include the YSC budget.

⁴³ The seventeen program staff include Ed Nestingen, Bob Scarborough, Nick Page, Greg Albert, Ted Lindberg, Ann Colgan, Judy Checker, Bobby Fein, Kent Doughty, Elisabeth Budzinski, Greg Lindsey, Sue Weishar, Catherine Grohens, Willie Seid, Fred Mastny, Aurora Villacorta, and Linda Varconda. This does not count the staff employed by YSC or the Bailey Scholarship Program.

⁴⁴ Robert Russell & Associates, “Final Report: Fund Raising Feasibility Study,” April 8, 1983, pp. 31-32. Data from the study was drawn from personal interviews with 186 persons related to the University YMCA, the University of Illinois, and the Champaign-Urbana community.

⁴⁵ Report of the Strategic Operations Plan Implementation Committee, August 22, 1984.

⁴⁶ Adopted by the Board of Governors on March 31, 1990, and published in Y Highlights, May, 1990, p. 3.

⁴⁷ “Actions by the University YMCA Board of Governors Concerning Native Americans and ‘Chief Illiniwek,’” March, 1991.

⁴⁸ Adopted by the Board of Governors on November 16, 1995, and published in the University YMCA 1995-96 Annual Report, p. 4.

⁴⁹ “Free Thought and the Progressive Student Union.” Y’s Indian, Winter, 1985, p. 1.

⁵⁰ University YMCA 1994-95 Annual Report, p. 8.

⁵¹ The fourteen program staff, in chronological order of employment, include Chris Swartout, Scott Peters, Paul Morgan, Henry del Valle, Lynne Gildensoph, Maria Somma, Rick Boyd, Lena Choe, Bob Naiman, Bobby Mauoane, Jennifer Berkshire, Lisa Fay, Rebecca Crummey, and Patrick Oray.

⁵² J. Frederick Miller, “The Case for the U. of I. YMCA.” Y’s Indian, May, 1961, p. 3.

⁵³ Ibid.

⁵⁴ John Gwinn, “What Contributions Should the Y Make to the Present University Situation?” Unpublished paper, October, 1962.

⁵⁵ A. L. Kershaw, The New Frontier for the Student YMCA and YWCA (New York: National Council of the YMCA and YWCA, 1955), p. 6.

⁵⁶ Quoted in Limbert (1964), p. 131.

⁵⁷ See Douglas Sloan, Faith and Knowledge: Mainline Protestantism and American Higher Education (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994).

⁵⁸ Quoted in Kaori Kenmotsu, “What Happened to the YMCA Student Movement?” (Unpublished manuscript, YMCA of the USA archives, 1992), p. 21.

⁵⁹ Quoted in Ibid.

⁶⁰ York Lucci, The Campus YMCA: Highlights from a National Study (New York: National Board of Young Men’s Christian Associations, 1960), p. 8.

⁶¹ For an account of the efforts to revive student work in the 1980s, see Jean Burkhardt, “Drawing Strength from the Past: The Student Movement of the YMCA’s of the USA, 1970-95,” in Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Fall, 1995, pp. 505-516.

⁶² Capital Campaign Proposal, November, 1982.

⁶³ Mark C. Johnson, “Facing the Future.” Y’s Indian, 1988 No. 1, p. 1.

⁶⁴ Maynard Brichford, “Running with the Past.” Y’s Indian, 1988 No. 2, p. 2.

⁶⁵ Darrell Hartweg, “The Role of the University YMCA in the 1990s.” Y Report, 1990 No. 2, p. 2.

⁶⁶ Philip Martin, “The ‘C’ in the YMCA: What Does it Mean Today?” Y Report, 1991 No. 2, p. 2.