This website has been prepared to introduce you to Campbell University. Through it, you will learn of the talented and friendly student body, high-quality faculty, excellent academic programs, beautiful campus and facilities, and many friends who support the mission of Campbell and contribute to the fulfillment of its purpose.

As you read about Campbell, we want you to gain a perspective of what it would be like to live and study at one of the finest universities in the eastern United States.

Selecting a quality university should include certain criteria:

A school where the individual counts: Campbell University is a friendly campus where small classes encourage closer relationships among students and faculty. The individual student is very important to fellow students, faculty, and the administrative staff.

Meaningful programs: With a tradition of academic excellence, Campbell readily introduces new programs which reflect changes in the professional and vocational developments of our nation and world. Intramural and intercollegiate athletics combine with academics to make Campbell an exciting place to study and play.

A pleasant social and cultural environment: Campbell is a coeducational, church-related university located in central North Carolina. Students are enrolled from all counties, with most states along the Atlantic Seaboard represented in the student body. Students from more than forty-five foreign countries regularly attend Campbell. The distribution of male and female students is almost equal. The climate in Buies Creek is mild with the opportunity for outdoor sports throughout the year. 

Statement of Purpose

Campbell University is a university of the liberal arts, sciences, and professions which is committed to helping students develop an integrated Christian personality characterized by a wholeness of body, mind and spirit that includes a method of critical judgment; an appreciation of the intellectual, cultural, and religious heritage; stewardship of the body; and a sensitive awareness of the world and society in which they live and work with persons.

Campbell University is a Baptist university affiliated with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Both in and out of the classroom, the University endeavors to present Christian principles to students and to foster their application to daily life.

The purpose of Campbell University arises out of three basic theological and Biblical presuppositions: learning is appointed and conserved by God as essential to the fulfillment of human destiny; in Christ, all things consist and find ultimate unity; and the Kingdom of God in this world is rooted and grounded in Christian community.

Therefore, the mission of Campbell University, as a community of Christian scholars, is to:

• Provide students with a Christian world view;

• Bring the Word of God, Mind of Christ, and Power of the Spirit to bear in developing moral courage, social sensitivity, and ethical responsibility that will inspire a productive and faithful maturation as individuals and as citizens;

• Transfer from one generation to the next the vast body of knowledge and values accumulated over the ages;

• Encourage creativity, imagination, and rigor in the use of intellectual skills;

• Affirm the University’s commitment to the belief that truth is never one-dimensional but in wholeness is revelatory, subjective, and transcendent as well as empirical, objective, and rational, and that all truth finds its unity in the mind of Christ;

• Frame University teaching in the context of a liberal arts education seeking to free persons to live more abundantly and securely in an ever-changing social order;

• Foster stewardship in nurturing the gifts of the mind and in developing aesthetic sensibilities;

• Equip students with superior vocational skills, productive insights, and professional integrity;

• Provide a community of learning that is committed to the pursuit, discovery, and dissemination of knowledge to serve the region as well as national and international communities;

• Prepare students for purposeful lives and Christian service throughout the world through undergraduate, graduate, and professional instruction including terminal graduate and professional programs;

• Provide services to the general community through research efforts, continuing education, cultural enrichment  programs, and extended campus education;

• Cooperate with other educational institutions for the advancement of mankind.

• This University sees the human vocation as living by faith under grace, with no conflict between the life of faith and the life of inquiry.

Accreditation
 
Campbell University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award Associate, Bachelor’s, Master’s, Education Specialist, and Doctor’s Degrees.  Inquiries relative to the university’s accreditation should be directed to the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia  30033-4097; Telephone number 404-679-4501.

Campbell’s Professional Education programs are also accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and approved by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI). The Social Work program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).

Campbell University holds membership in the North Carolina Association of Colleges and Universities, the North Carolina Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Association of Baptist Colleges and Schools, the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, and the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. The School of Law is accredited by the American Bar Association, the School of Pharmacy by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education, and the Divinity School by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS).

Implicit in this old Latin motto, "To the stars through difficulties," adopted during the dark days of Reconstruction, are beliefs, aims, and objectives that have guided this institution through ever-changing circumstances.

Campbell’s rise from a community school of twenty-one students to eminence as a great southern academy and later to its present standing among the state’s largest church-related senior universities is illustrative of what perseverance can accomplish in scaling the heights.

Campbell University was founded January 5, 1887, by James Archibald Campbell, a North Carolina preacher who believed that no student should be denied admission because of lack of funds.

Known as Buies Creek Academy, the school that began with twenty-one students grew slowly during the early years.

"From the beginning, his [Dr. James Archibald Campbell] passion was that his school prepare young men and women for a living and for a life, not one but both. He was concerned that Christ have his way in the classroom and that he have his way in the church house, no difference…"

Campbell College – Big Miracle at Little Buies Creek, (1887-1974)

Dr. J. Winston Pearce

In 1926, the school attained junior college status and changed its name from Buies Creek Academy to Campbell Junior College. In 1961, Campbell became a senior college. The name was changed to Campbell University on June 6, 1979.

Graduate programs were begun in 1977 with the Master of Education degree. The Master of Business Administration degree was added in 1978 and the Master of Science in Government was established in 1982.

The Campbell University School of Law was founded in 1976, and the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business was begun in 1983. The Schools of Pharmacy and Education were established in 1985. The Divinity School was established in 1995.

In over one hundred years of service, Campbell University has been served by only four presidents:

James Archibald Campbell     1887-1934
Leslie Hartwell Campbell       1934-1967
Norman Adrian Wiggins        1967-2003
Jerry M. Wallace                     2003-

Return