The Northwest District (LCMS) established a Commission on College and University Work (also known as the Committee on Campus Ministry) in 1958 as an auxiliary committee to the District Mission Committee. The chief task of this commission was to provide for the spiritual needs of the students who came from Northwest District Congregations and were enrolled at campuses in the Pacific Northwest that were not affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. In some cases resident chaplains were stationed on the campus, and in other cases a relationship between a campus and a local Lutheran congregation was established. The Commission coordinated, supervised, and promoted the work, and usually provided financial assistance. The records in the collection document the work of this Commission.

The chaplains who worked with students on the campuses were all pastors, with the exception of Donna King at Oregon State University who was a Deaconness.

Although many of the campus ministries included ecumenical joint ventures with other Christian denominations, relationships with other Lutherans were considered of primary importance. Before 1966, a Joint District-Synodical Committee for Higher Education had been formed between the American Lutheran Church (ALC) and the Lutheran Church in America (LCA). Beginning in 1967 the LCMS sent observers to this group's meetings. By 1969 the Lutheran Council for Campus Ministry in the Pacific Northwest was organized to include all three Lutheran church bodies; it met formally for the first time in 1969 September 14-15. In 1975 the name was changed to Inter-Lutheran Council for Campus Ministry in the Pacific Northwest. This joint Council ceased to function in 1985 when the LCMS formed the Lutheran Student Fellowship--Missouri Synod.

In 1928 a student organization, Gamma Delta: International Association of Lutheran Students, was formed. It had chapters on many of the campuses. It disbanded in 1968 in anticipation of the formation of a pan-Lutheran student organization. Many Gamma Delta chapters joined with the Lutheran Student Association of America (LSAA, founded in 1922) to form the Lutheran Student Movement--USA in 1969, but the LCMS did not formally join. The LCMS ultimately withdrew all support from LSM--USA and formed the Lutheran Student Fellowship--Missouri Synod organization in 1985.