Asbury University

Asbury University is a private Christian university in Wilmore, Kentucky. Although it is a non-denominational school, the college is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The school offers 50-plus majors across 17 departments. In the fall of 2016, Asbury University had a total enrollment of 1,854: 1,640 traditional undergraduate students and 214 graduate students. The campus of Asbury Theological Seminary, which became a separate institution in 1922, is located across the street from Asbury University. History Asbury College was established on September 2, 1890, by John Wesley Hughes in Wilmore, Kentucky. It was originally called Kentucky Holiness College, but the following year was renamed after Bishop Francis Asbury, a circuit-riding evangelist known as the "Father of American Methodism". Bishop Asbury had established the first Methodist school in the United States west of the Appalachians, Bethel Academy, in 1790; its site lies near High Bridge, only about four miles (6 km) south of Wilmore. After being pushed out as President of Asbury College in 1905, Hughes went on to found another college, Kingswood College, in Breckinridge County, Kentucky. Kingswood College no longer exists. Despite his disappointment over being removed at Asbury, Hughes wrote in his 1923 autobiography: "Being sure I was led of God to establish (Asbury College), it being my college child born in poverty, mental perplexity, and soul agony, I loved it from its birth better than my own life. As the days have come and gone, with many sad and broken-hearted experiences, my love has increased. My appreciation of what it has done, what it is doing, and what it promises to do in the future, is such that I am willing to lay down my life for its perpetuation." In 1928, Hughes was invited to break ground for Asbury College's new chapel, Hughes Auditorium, which is still in use today.