College of Professional Studies

A Brief History of George Williams College

The history of George Williams College is intimately tied to the history of the YMCA, which was founded in 1844 by Sir George Williams and 11 associates in London, England.

The YMCA had purchased four acres of land on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin in 1886 to become the permanent home of its Western Secretarial Institute, which served as a summer retreat for YMCA leaders. From this grew the George Williams College Lake Geneva Campus, or College Camp, as it came to be known.

In 1890, the YMCA opened the YMCA Training School in Chicago, Illinois, to educate young men for YMCA leadership. The Training School merged with the Institute at Lake Geneva in 1896 and was permanently established in Chicago as the Secretarial Institute and Training School of the YMCA. It was renamed the Young Men's Christian Association College in 1913. The YMCA College moved to Hyde Park on Chicago's south side in 1915 (pictured), and in 1933 was named George Williams College in honor of the founder of the YMCA movement.

In 1952, the college reaffirmed its primary goal of providing professional education for future YMCA leaders as well as professional preparation for teachers, health and physical education instructors, recreation directors, and for service in Boys' Clubs and related fields. The graduate and undergraduate social work degree programs at George Williams College were the outgrowth of the Group Work curriculum for which the college had earned a strong reputation.

As the 1960s dawned, GWC began looking at options for a new campus location. In 1964, construction began in Downers Grove, Illinois, and GWC officially relocated there in 1966. In 1970, the Council on Social Work Education accredited the College's Master's of Social Work (MSW) program and, in 1971, approved as a baccalaureate social work degree program, the core curriculum was developed in the Division of Group Work and Recreation. In the 1970s, the college broadened its educational offerings to include environmental studies, joining with the National Park Service to create the Institute for Environmental Awareness. That led to the Department of Leisure and Environmental Resource Administration (LERA) and to the designation of the Lake Geneva campus as a National Environmental Study Area. In 1980, the Bachelor of Social Work degree (BSW) was first offered by the college. In 1981, the college received a gift of Harmony Hills, a 199-acre nature preserve in the Kettle Moraine area near Eagle, Wisconsin.

Part of the ongoing strategic plan entailed selling 84 acres on the western edge of the Downers Grove campus to generate additional needed revenues. The prospective buyer backed out of the deal, however, which resulted in unforeseeable financial difficulties that the school could not overcome, forcing it to discontinue academic operations in December, 1985. Despite great effort on the part of many to stabilize the school financially, George Williams College had to close its Downers Grove campus in 1986 and disband its academic programs. The Social Work, LERA, and some applied behavioral science programs were transferred that year to nearby Aurora University, which established a home for these programs as well as many of the faculty, staff, and students associated with them.

Aurora University and George Williams College

In 1988, the George Williams College Board of Trustees entertained proposals from various colleges and universities around the country to form an affiliation that would re-establish human service degree programs consistent with the GWC mission of human service education. Aurora University was selected as the institution best able to perpetuate the GWC name with baccalaureate and masters degrees related to the college's historical mission and YMCA heritage. It would involve the Lake Geneva campus, the Harmony Hills land, and all other assets of the college in support of those objectives. These efforts culminated in the 1992 affiliation agreement that paved the way for a merger eight years later. Today, the Lake Geneva facility is governed by the university's Board of Trustees, many of whom are GWC alumni. Assets retained by the college after the sale of its property in Downers Grove are now part of the AU endowment.

In 1993, Aurora University established the George Williams College of Aurora University as a separate school housing the School of Social Work, School of Education, and School of Physical Education and Recreation Administration. It contained the GWC programs brought to AU in 1986 and included several of the former GWC faculty. It was (and remains) dedicated to carrying on the tradition and legacy of the human service mission and heritage of George Williams College.

In 1997, Aurora University re-energized the original GWC commitment to YMCA-centered educational programming by creating the YMCA Senior Director Certification Program as a supplemental major. Designed for people who want to pursue a career in the YMCA, it allows students to meet all requirements for the YMCA Senior Director Certification while at the same time earning their degree in a variety of related majors. In the same year, a group work major aimed specifically at staff of youth-serving agencies in Chicago was initiated.

The current configuration of George Williams College of Health and Human Services consists of the School of Health and Physical Education, the School of Nursing, and the School of Social Work. The School of Health and Physical Education offers undergraduate degrees in K-12 physical education teacher certification, fitness leadership, and athletic training. The School of Nursing offers the Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and the School of Social of Social Work offers the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in social work, an undergraduate degree in criminal justice, and a Bachelor of Science in Human Services. The latter program is offered on both the Aurora campus and in the City of Chicago.

George Williams College has seen a number of geographic locations and been through a variety of organizational arrangements in its storied history. What has endured and remains constant is its deep commitment to the wide field of human service and the betterment of the human condition.