By the early 1920s, the State College Teachers College had doubled (in just two decades) to two thousand students. The college also started charging tuition from would-be teachers. Prior to 1927, tuition had been free for anyone signing a declaration to teach in Iowa. Now, it cost $9 a term.

As enrollment increased, so did school spirit and a dizzying support of college football. A new athletic director and coach, Ivan Doseff, and ardent student newspaper headlines increased game attendance. “Have you been to the football field yet this fall to watch the hundred warriors in sham battle?... It’s about time that you appeared and showed your interest” wrote the College Eye.

In 1923 a new important tradition emerged, distinguished by its emerald hue. Male first-years were required to wear green beanies; women, green armbands. Letters standing for the students’ area of study were also printed on the caps and bands. First-years had to wear the green attire from 7:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. every day except Sunday. As the student newspaper stated, any first-year violating this rule would “be subject to any penalty the upperclassmen decide to inflict."

It was during this era of new traditions that the Campanile, an iconic structure that had been thought up ten years earlier, was realized in 1925. The raising of funds for the bell tower began with the Class of 1915, who pledged 1% of their salary in the year after graduating to the Campanile fund. The Class of 1916 continued funding the project, but it was not until WWI that the university began actively campaigning for the Campanile. The concept behind the bell tower transformed into a memorial to those who had served in the war. The Campanile was gifted a famous clock mechanism–the Fasoldt Clock–by the clockmaker’s grandson, through a national competition to find “the best setting” for the clock. NYU was in fierce competition with the State Teachers College, and through gladhanding and special meetings…the Iowa setting won out.

The cornerstone of the Campanile was laid on June 1, 1925, in association with Commencement exercises. Fred C. Gilchrist, son of the school's first president, James Cleland Gilchrist, spoke at the Commencement breakfast.

President Seerley left the school in 1928 to be succeeded by Orval Ray Latham. Other new buildings during the 1920s decade included a new wing for Bartlett (1924) and West Gym (1925).