History

Central YMCA College developed from two sources.  Around 1890 the Young Men’s Christian Association of Chicago began offering evening business classes for working men.  Also about this time the Chicago Y.M.C.A. began hosting summer training programs for Y.M.C.A. leaders from across the country.  These programs were held at Lake Geneva,WI.  By 1915 the Central YMCA College had become permanently established in the Hyde Park section of Chicago, and the summer training programs continued.  The college was first accredited by North Central in 1924.

 

In 1929-30 Central YMCA College had around 160 undergraduate students (all male) and another 15 graduate students.  Most students were not from Chicago.  The 43 seniors represented 17 states and 3 foreign countries. The two degrees offered—Bachelor of Physical Education and Bachelor of Applied Science—represented the two sources of the college.  By 1944 the school had grown to more than 2,500 students—more than a half either Jewish or African-American.

 

The campus had chapters of five social fraternities and four literary societies, suggesting that a large percentage of students were members.  Among other campus activities were a glee club, a drama club, and organizations promoting regional interests and married life. A publications fraternity was comprised of the staff for both the yearbook and the newspaper. 

 

All of the men who had earned a letter in a sport were made members of the C Club. 

 

In its closure, Central YMCA spawned two present institutions.  Fearing that the board of trustees wanted to institute a quota system for minority students, President Amos Sparling refused to provide them with data on school demographics.  Fired, he and many of the faculty and students left to found Thomas Jefferson College, now Roosevelt University, in 1945.  The Y.M.C.A.-sponsored college took the name George Williams College, continuing the work of training students for service to others.  Today it is part of Aurora University in Williams Bay, Wisconsin.