From their prayer meeting beginnings, the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Organizations at Oberlin College directed a wide range of social and religious activity on and off campus, the core purpose of which was the development of Christian character in students. The organizations were non-denominational, voluntary associations of students, linked to both their national and international representative bodies through their Executive Secretaries. The Oberlin YMCA and YWCA were separately administered, each with its own membership, elected officers, Executive Secretary, Executive Committee, Cabinet, and an Advisory Board. The associations frequently cooperated in presenting activities on campus.

The YMCA established itself at Oberlin College in 1881, hiring its first full-time Secretary, James E. Sprunger (d. 1918), in 1904. In 1893, Oberlin senior Lucy Lamb Wilson (1862-1925) began to lobby for replacing the Dean of Women's weekly prayer meetings with an organization run by the women themselves. In February 1894, the Woman's Board of Managers approved the organization of Oberlin's first Young Women's Christian Association. Three years later, YWCA President Florence Mary Fitch (1875-1959), Professor of Biblical Literature at the Oberlin Theological Seminary, successfully appealed to the Board for affiliation with the national body. The YWCA's first full-time Secretary was Georgia Mathilda Carrothers (A.B. '02), who served from 1903 to 1905.

In 1903, the work of the YMCA was enlarged by the addition of fifteen group Bible classes and the training class for class leaders which was led by President Henry Churchill King (1858-1934). Dean of the Seminary, Edward Increase Bosworth (1861-1927), served on the YMCA Advisory Board and conducted religious meetings, Mission Study classes, and encouraged the YM/YWCA-sponsored work of the Oberlin Band of Student Volunteers for Foreign Missions, founded in 1881. Religious work extended to the communities surrounding Oberlin and included Sunday School teaching and assistance at nearby schools, juvenile courts, workhouses, orphanages, and the settlement houses in Lorain.

The YWCA's constitution from 1933 until 1957 stated the purpose of the group to be "a full and creative life through a growing knowledge of God." In 1956, with cooperation increasing between the YM and YWCA and the Y program of greater importance on campus (25% of the student body were members), a Publicity Council was added to the four standing program commissions of Religious Emphasis, Campus Service, Community Service, and Public Affairs. In 1962, in order to preserve its broad appeal, the YWCA amended entirely its purpose clause in Article II of its constitution. The YWCA declared itself an association based "on Christian motivation," but took its larger purpose to be the stimulation of "a free exchange of ideas" and "an examination of and encounter with Christianity." Activities were often undertaken in the service of broadly humanitarian--rather than specifically "Christian"--ideals, as, for example, the student protests which the YM and YWCAs organized in Cleveland following the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956.

Relations between the Ys and the College were monitored by the faculty-composed Religious Interests Committee and its sub-committees. The College provided on-campus quarters for both the YM and YWCA, and their professional leaders were members of the College staff whose salaries were paid by an annual grant from the College. During the presidency of William E. Stevenson (1946-59), budget deficits provoked a debate over how much of the College's monies should be allocated to the support of the Ys. In order to reduce expenditures, President Stevenson advocated hiring one Y Executive Secretary for both YM and YWCA. His suggestion was deemed unworkable by both Advisory Boards. Stevenson did approve a new personnel policy for the Ys, developed in 1946 and amended in 1953. It limited the term of service for the Y Executive Secretaries to an initial two years, with renewal contingent upon an annual performance review. The purpose of the revised policy was to ensure that the college would not be required to shoulder the financial burdens associated with the employ of aging Y personnel. Subsequently, both Y secretaries resigned, George Ball in 1955 after four years of service, and Elizabeth Blakesley in 1957 after thirteen years of service.In 1956, the Y secretaries became officers of the college, and their names were published in the college catalogues.

Following the closing of the Graduate School of Theology in 1966, President Robert Kenneth Carr asked that the General Faculty Committee on Religious Interests and Chapel Service undertake a study of the religious life of the campus. In its 1967 report, the committee concluded that the YMCA and YWCA were "not great enough in scope to fill the need for religious leadership, particularly the need which we sharply sensed on campus for mature, experienced, long term leadership." Perhaps it was not inevitable that the appointment of college chaplains should have entailed the demise of the Ys. Former Y secretaries had advocated a chaplaincy that would have enhanced the effectiveness of their own work. In 1970, David Byers was named Campus Minister, and two Danforth Religious Interns were hired in 1971. Academic year 1972/73 was the last year in which the YMCA and YWCA enjoyed representation at Oberlin College.

EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES OF THE YM AND YWCAS

YMCA Secretaries

1902-04 W. Moreton Owen
1904-05 (I semester) James Eliphalet Sprunger
1904-05 (II semester) Robert Legan Ewing
1905-07 Robb Ozro Bartholomew
1907-09 John Griffith Olmstead
1909-12 Daniel W. Jones
1912-13 Hugh Wells Hubbard
1913-14 Samuel Marks Kinney
1914-15 James Treat Carter
1915-16 William Treat Martin
1916-17 Carlton Cisne Compton
1917-18 James M. Groves
1918-19 Bruce R. Baxter
1920-21 William R. Catton
1921-22 Robert Nathaniel Montgomery
1922-24 Harold N. Skidmore
1924-27 Charles Gideon Stewart
1927-28 Ralph Ewing Albright
1934-38 Daniel Chapin Kinsey (part-time)
1939-49 (Information unavailable)
1949-51 W. Robert Rankin (Director of Religious Activities)
1951-55 George Ball (Director of Religious Activities)
1955-58 Harvey G. Cox (YMCA Exec. Sec., Director of Religious Activities)
1958-60 Richard L. Gelwick
1960-65 Paul W. Rahmeier
1965-69 Robert Carroll Williams
1969-71 M. Michael Morse
1970 David Byers, Campus Minister
1971-72 R. Butler, J. Foust, Danforth Religious Interns

YWCA Secretaries

1905-06 Georgia M. Carrothers
1906-07 Jean James & Lucy Hopkins
1908-09 Lucy Hopkins
1909-12 Helen Fitts
1912-13 Mary M. Lindsay
1913-14 Margaret E. Bennett & Mary M. Lindsay
1914-16 Margaret E. Bennett
1916-18 Helen Hutchcraft
1918-21 Marion Colcord
1921-22 Genevieve Morrow
1922-36 Althea Woodruff
1936-41 Ann M. Graybill
1941-43 Mary Lou Keller
1944-57 Elizabeth Blakesley
1958-60 Gladyce A. Ohrt
1960-64 Marjorie S. Schreiber
1964-70 Beverly L. Moffet
1970-72 Nancy D. Richardson
1972-73 Elizabeth H. Olstad, Director of YM/YWCA