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Over the years the growing Indiana Asbury faculty had become more formally organized with its own secretary and treasurer, holding first weekly meetings and after 1874 bi-monthly meetings. Faculty members also served as university librarian, and from 1881 on, as registrar. Professors continued to be assigned odd jobs. In 1882 Professor De Motte was detailed to visit saloons and gambling halls in town on the lookout for errant students! Professor Alma Holman, of course, was put in charge of floral arrangements for chapel. More importantly, the position of university vice-president was always chosen from faculty ranks, John Clark Ridpath replacing the departing Tingley in that role in 1879.

    
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Illustration from the 1879
Putnam County Atlas.
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President Alexander Martin was responsible for the  introduction of student military training on campus in 1876. After a year of an informal program led by two former Civil War officers from Indianapolis, in the spring of 1877 the United States Army assigned Captain D.D. Wheeler as commandant of the newly organized military department. Upon his arrival on campus Wheeler found four companies already organized and began drilling them with arms supplied by the state of Indiana. Under his successor, Lieutenant William R. Hamilton, two artillery pieces were obtained, and in the summer of 1882 the Asbury cadets won honors in both artillery and infantry drill at a military encampment in Indianapolis. Attendance was required of freshman and sophomore males as well as senior boys in the preparatory department, but student enthusiasm for the program was so high many others volunteered. From time to time one or more companies of young women were even organized. Though Captain Wheeler tried to raise money for an armory building, the cadets had to be content with using the old chapel in the Edifice, which was equipped as an armory-gymnasium in 1882. Such a program of military training, while probably owing its great popularity to the recent memories of the Civil War, also certainly served the demands of a growing interest in physical fitness.

A major post-Civil War change came with the expansion of the physical plant. Until the mid '70s the essential college work had been carried on in the Edifice, while preparatory classes were taught in the old county seminary building, which had become the property of the university. Town landlords provided adequate lodging and board for students; hence little thought was given to building dormitories. In 1870 the cornerstone was laid for the building eventually called East College, but its construction was long drawn out because of the slow pace of fund raising. Some use could be made of it by 1874 and it was dedicated in 1877. Virtually all college classes and administrative offices were moved to East College, while the Edifice continued to house the college library, the armory, and the gymnasium. The preparatory department moved into the Edifice when the old county seminary building was razed to make room for the College Avenue Methodist Church.

In 1879, disaster struck. A fire destroyed virtually all of the Edifice except the outer walls. Plans were quickly formulated to reconstruct the old building, and within eight months it was ready for occupation once more. It had been enlarged by additions on both east and west, with the main entrance now facing east rather than north. While the renovated building lacked the peculiar charm of the old Edifice, the new West College, as it was renamed, gave good service to the university for the next 50 years.

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     After the Edifice burned in 1879, it was
     quickly rebuilt with additions to the east
     and west sides of the building.  The "new"
     building, called West College, faced east
     (while the Edifice had originally faced north.)
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The first foreign students were admitted in 1874, when three Brazilians were recorded in attendance, but little more is known about them. More significant was the arrival of four Japanese students in the summer of 1877. They proved to be the vanguard of a large contingent of Japanese students who studied at the university in subsequent years.

Religion remained an important element in university life in this period, with chapel prayers, church attendance, and Sunday afternoon lectures continuing to be compulsory.

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Izumy Nasu was one of the four Japanese students who came to Asbury in 1877, when he enrolled in the preparatory department.  Before his death in 1885 he translated parts of the Iliad into Japanese.
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Both students and professors often took part in regular revival meetings. In 1847 there were 100 conversions in a 10-day period and about the same number was reported in 1881-82; however, the overall number of Asbury students had grown by then. A shift from faculty initiatives in religious observance can be seen, however, in the formation of a college chapter of the Young Men's Christian Association in 1879, not long after the first such organization appeared at Hanover College. Sponsoring such activities as Sunday school classes and noon prayer meetings as well as evangelistic meetings in nearby communities, the YMCA quickly became a major force on campus. Five years later women students formed their own YWCA chapter, and before long both groups were active participants in the Student Volunteer Movement, which encouraged its members to enter the foreign mission field. The late 19th century saw student piety moving into a more active outward role, as opposed to an emphasis on personal sanctification. While their zenith has now passed, these associations proved to be among the most enduring student organizations the university has known.

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