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Office of Ethics and Religion (University of Michigan) records, 1860-1991

16.3 linear feet — 1 oversize volume

University of Michigan office established in 1973 to counsel students in matters of faith and morality, successor to several organizations concerned with student religious activity. Records are mainly of predecessor organizations, the Student Christian Association (1860-1937) and the Student Religious Association (1937- 1956), but does include some records of the Office of Religious Affairs (1956- 1973) and of successor organization, the Office of Ethics and Religion (1973- 1991); also records of component and related organizations, including the University of Michigan chapters of the Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association and the Association of Religious Counselors.

Although the name given to this group of records is the University of Michigan Office of Ethics and Religion, the researcher should note that the records consist primarily of predecessor organizations, the Student Christian Association (SCA), the Student Religious Association (SRA), and the Office of Religious Affairs, as well as component and ancillary organizations such as the University of Michigan Young Men's Christian Association, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Association of Religious Counselors, and the Christian Federation Advisors.

The record group begins with a summary history of the organization written by C. Grey Austin and entitled A Century of Religion at the University of Michigan (1957). Covering the period up to the establishment of the Office of Religious Affairs, this history provides solid information about the role of religion at the university and the activities and restructuring of the SCA and the SRA. Written by the same individual who wrote the sections on the two organizations in The University of Michigan; An Encyclopedic Survey, this volume is more detailed than those summaries and should be consulted first for background information.

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Student Christian Association, 1860-1937

6 linear feet

The first subgroup consists of the records of the Student Religious Association (1860-1937; 6 linear feet). This subgroup is divided into the following series: Historical File, Administration, Financial Records, Program Files, Component Organizations, Topical Files, and Scrapbooks and Clippings. The folder listing will make clear the contents of these various series, but the researcher might find the following of noteworthy interest. Within the Program Files are files of correspondence and other papers relating to the Bushrah mission, 1910-1916. The Student Christian Association, as was noted, had a powerful inclination toward missions work. One manifestation of that was its efforts through students to provide the people of Bushrah in the Persian Gulf with schools, a hospital, and a program of public health instruction. Unfortunately, the Bushrah program was interrupted by the coming of World War I and after that the energies of the SCA were focused on its own at-home needs for a new building and for programs directed specifically toward U-M students.

The Component Organizations series is noteworthy for the records of the two Y organizations which during the first two decades of the twentieth century directed the programmatic efforts of the SCA. This series includes minutes of the two organizations as well as minutes of the SCA cabinet.

Office of Ethics and Religion (University of Michigan) records, 1860-1991
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