YMCA - Student Division Records

The first Young Men's Christian Association was organized by the Englishman George Williams in June of 1844. The idea spread quickly to the United States and by the 1850s YMCAs were being formed at various colleges and universities. YMCA work among students increased, largely through the efforts of Robert Weidensall, until, in 1877, the intercollegiate branch was established as a separate department of the International Committee of the YMCA. Most instrumental in organizing the Student Department was a young man named Luther Deloraine Wishard, who in 1877 became the world's first full-time student Christian movement secretary.

Wishard served as executive secretary of the student YMCA from 1877 until 1888 when Charles K. Ober and John R. Mott assumed joint responsibility for YMCA student work. In 1890, Ober moved to another position in the YMCA hierarchy and Mott served as executive secretary of the Student Department until 1915 when he was replaced by David R. Porter. The majority of the Student YMCA archives available in this collection were accumulated under the leadership of executive secretaries Mott, Porter, A. Roland Elliott (1934-1943) and R.H. Edwin Espy (1943-1955).

The early years of the Student YMCA were characterized by an emphasis on personal religion: evangelism, prayer meetings, and Bible study, complemented by "neighborhood work" in jails, rescue missions and other social agencies, and devotion to the missionary cause. The nationwide summer student conference as an important modus operandi of the Student YMCA beginning with the 1886 "summer school for Bible study" directed by Dwight L. Moody in Northfield, Massachusetts. This conference also led to the formation of the Student Volunteer Movement for Missions, which served as the missionary arm of the Student YMCA.

Rapid growth followed the establishment of the Student Department in 1877. By 1891, there were 345 college member associations and by 1900, 628 associations. The Student YMCA reflected the changing tone of religion in America during the first two decades of the 20th century as, under the leadership of John R. Mott, the Student Department assimilated social gospel doctrines well before the parent YMCA. YMCA evangelism began to tend away from emphasis on individual conversion and take on a stronger ethical tone, particularly in the social evangelism campaigns of Raymond Robins and John L. Childs. From 1908 on, the trend in Bible study was away from content study and towards the view of Bible study as a means to illuminate contemporary problems.

World War I's enormous impact on the Student YMCA continued nearly until 1920 because of the military training programs of many colleges and universities. In student conferences after World War I, intense concern for social problems such as race, labor and war had replaced the earlier interest in YMCA methods. C. Howard Hopkins has written of D.R. Porter's term of leadership (1915-1934): "The two decades of his secretaryship spanned the most difficult period the student movement had known, a time in which student life reflected not only the dynamic shifts taking place in the American college and university but also the revolutionary changes in the total cultural pattern of western civilization" (C. Howard Hopkins. History of the YMCA in North America. N.Y.: Association Press, 1951 p.639). In 1919, students and their leaders procured the passage of the "Social Creed of the Churches" at the International Convention and for the first time the Student Department was attacked as "radical" by certain elements of the parent YMCA. The 1920s saw increasing tension between the Student YMCA and its parent body as the students sought more control of policymaking and freedom to establish a more liberal membership basis. The tension reached a head in 1927 when the National Student Committee members, D.R. Porter, and his staff all resigned. They withdrew their resignations only when the Student Department was given co-ordinate divisional status along with the home and foreign divisions of the YMCA National Council. During the 1930s there was a lessening of tension between the parent and Student YMCAs and a renewed emphasis on evangelism and Bible study. The number of member associations declined as the years went by from 731 in 1920 to 594 in 1930 and 480 in 1940. This decline resulted from colleges taking over some functions formerly performed by the YMCA, increased denominational and cooperative work and the general climate of the times.

The first cooperative effort of the Student YMCA, the Council of North American Student Movements, was dissolved in 1918. In 1922 the Council of Christian Associations, essentially a cooperative effort of YMCAs and YWCAs, was formed. The CCA was succeeded in 1935 by the National Intercollegiate Christian Council (NICC) which was succeeded by the National Student Council YMCA/YWCA (NSCY) in 1951. The YMCA also participated in other cooperative movements including the World Student Christian Federation and the United Student Christian Council. Beginning in 1934 many regions of the country developed Student Christian Movements which united YMCA, YWCA and denominational campus groups. The Student Christian Movement of New England archives (Record Group No. 57) provide an interesting case study of how the YMCA interrelated with the SCM movements.

As the YMCA celebrated its centennial in 1955, the Student YMCA was still an active organization but it had lost its central role in American college and university life.

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