For a century, the YMCA was instrumental in the lives of American college students. From the overseeing of campus religious activity to the development of student services the Y played a critical role on campus. From its beginnings at the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia in 1858 the YMCA spread to the majority of American institutions by the turn of the twentieth century. It provided much needed and long neglected services for many students. For a generation, students depended on the Y for housing, academic tutoring, employment services, and recreation. This growth stemmed from a history of religious indifference for American students and the leaders of the campuses on which these students found themselves as well as the changing demographics of college students in the country. Between the first and second World Wars, the growth of two other institutions student affairs and denominational campus ministries fundamentally changed the role of the YMCA on American college campuses. When the YMCA departed from most university campuses in the mid twentieth century, the schools absorbed many of its essential activities and services. The story of this rise and fall at the University of Georgia offers a case study by which to understand the place of the YMCA in context, to investigate the reasons this particular campus took a dramatic departure from larger story of the demise of the YMCA in the 1940s, and observe the development of the student affairs culture at UGA.