Asbury First Year Center is the residence hall for first year Columbia College students. All first year students are required to live on campus through their sophomore year at Columbia College. Asbury has 144 rooms arranged in suites, two residence hall directors' apartments, a study room, a TV room, a student meeting room, a patio area and a lounge area in the lobby.

Each year, Move-In Day heralds the beginning of a new fall semester. Students, staff and faculty are on hand to greet new students and their families and help them move into Asbury First Year Center.

Named for Francis Asbury, first American Methodist Bishop. Built in 1965.

Francis Asbury (August 20, 1745 – March 31, 1816) was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. Born at Hamstead Bridge, Staffordshire, England of Methodist parents, Asbury became a local preacher at 18 and was ordained at 22. In 1771 he volunteered to travel to America. When the American War of Independence broke out in 1776 he was the only Methodist minister to remain in America.

In 1784 John Wesley named Asbury and Thomas Coke as co-superintendents of the work in America. This marks the beginning of the "Methodist Episcopal Church of the USA". For the next 32 years, Asbury led all the Methodists in America.
Like Wesley, Asbury preached in all sorts of places: courthouses, public houses, tobacco houses, fields, public squares, wherever a crowd assembled to hear him. For the remainder of his life he rode an average of 6000 miles each year, preaching virtually every day and conducting meetings and conferences. Under his direction the church grew from 1,200 to 214,000 members and 700 ordained preachers.

Francis Asbury