The YMCA at the University of Illinois was founded in 1873; just 6 years after the University began in 1867. The first President (Regent) of the University was a Baptist minister, John Milton Gregory. President Gregory led a daily chapel service that all the students were required to attend. But students wanted a religious organization of their own, and so began the YMCA at the U of I.

Three YMCAs were begun in Champaign-Urbana in 1873: The University YMCA, and one each in each town. The two town Ys later combined into the McKinley YMCA, now called the Champaign County YMCA.

In 1873 A Colonel from the Union during the time of the civil war formed the University YMCA however a building was not established yet. The 1st University YMCA was located at Wright and Green Streets; it is now called Illini Hall. Initially it housed 88 students and had an auditorium that could seat 250 students. And, was also the first residence hall on UIUC campus. Eventually the building became too expensive to run so they had to sell the building to the University. In1938 the University YMCA moved to its current building on the corner of Wright and Chalmers, in the heart of campus.

The University Y began with Bible studies and service projects. One was the "Student Handbook", later called the "I book". (See the Yellow sheet showing some of the pages from the one in 1884-85.) The Y provided this free service to students until 1955 when the I book was taken over by the University.

The University YMCA provided an employment service for students needing part-time work from 1900 until 1932, when the University took over the program. The University YMCA helped students find housing from the earliest years, and provided in 1908 the first Dormitory on campus for 88 U of I students in the Y building later purchased by the University and now known as Illini Hall.

In 1918, the University YMCA began organized service to International students. There were 201 students then from 31 countries. In 1968, the University took over the program, even hiring the Y staff person, John Price, to run the Program. Now there are over 4,000 international students at the U of I. The Campus Y continues to have cooperative programs for these students such as an international student reception each fall, and an international dinner each spring. I serve on the advisory committee for the Office of International Student Affairs.

Community service projects have always been an emphasis. Students taught English to International students, to refugees and to immigrants in town. Local children were tutored in the "Pal Program" and now through Vis-ˆ-vis. Over 200 students tutor one-on-one kids in the schools of Champaign Urbana. Y students also provide service out of town: This Spring, over 200 students volunteered for the Y's Alternative Spring Break trips to 17 different places in this country, plus to a Catholic mission in Guatemala.

Students for Environmental ConcernS (SECS) is a Y program that includes education, action, recycling, prairie restoration, and work to preserve rainforests half a world away. Communiversity offers a chance for students and community members to teach short, non-credit courses to anyone on such things as spring wild flowers, ballroom dancing, yoga, and English as a second language. Dump and Run is a huge recycling program done at the Y since 2002. We save all kinds of things from the dumpsters that students leaving town ordinarily throw away, store them over the summer, then sell them cheaply to new students in the fall: clothes, furniture, bikes, microwaves, TVsÉ you name it, we have at least 3 of them! In the fall of 2004 we filled the UIUC Stock Pavilion with more then 4 semi-trailers of donated items that would have normally been sent to a landfill!

Lecture series at the Y such as Friday Forum and Know Your University, the Vogel Lecture, the Nestingen Symposium, and the WILL radio program "Keepin' the Faith" on Sunday nights at 5, add to the intellectual, ethical, religious and spiritual life on campus and in the community.

We receive no money from the University budget and no tax money. We are a 501 (c3) non-profit organization and we exist solely from the donations of private individuals.