From Quaint to Collegiate
The physical transformation of Campbell University
You could write an entire book chronicling the physical improvements to Campbell’s main campus in Buies Creek from 2003 to today. Or you could sum up the incredible transformation in one sentence — the iconic 109,000-square-foot, $34 million Pope Convocation Center was built where a mobile home park once stood.
Aesthetically and functionally, Campbell’s main campus was behind the times and long overdue for a makeover when Jerry Wallace was sworn in as president. In his inaugural address, Wallace laid the foundation of his master plan: “Campbell will improve the quality of residential life on the campus by providing new and improved academic, residential, student life and athletic programs and facilities. The aim of becoming an even more inviting and attractive campus will guide the improvement, re-arrangement and addition of facilities, resulting in a more defined, useful, safe and enjoyable campus environment for the university community.”
The ambitious master plan was approved by the Board of Trustees the following year and called for a complete facelift of the campus. Phase One announced the construction of the convocation center, as well as a new pharmacy building, chapel and student apartments. It also planned for the renovation and expansion of other buildings and several landscaping improvements throughout the campus.
Vice President for Business and Treasurer Jim Roberts can’t hide his smile when he talks about the campus’ transformation in the last decade. The area behind D. Rich — today lush and green with tree-lined brick walkways — was a drab concrete parking lot as early as 2004.
“We took all that out and built Fellowship Commons, adding a nice tree bosque, grass, wonderful plants and a bluestone entry way,” he says, adding that the calming sounds of singing birds and the trickle of the nearby water fountain were drowned out by the hum of an electric pole and three generators. All power lines have since been buried. “It was just a mess.”
New brick and bluestone walkways and a few brick seating walls mark the recent renovations to Campbell’s Academic Circle, considered the symbolic “center” of the campus. | Photo by Bill Parrish
Before he was vice president, Roberts was director of physical plant operations when he came to Campbell in 1995 after serving a similar role at Georgetown College in Kentucky. He described the campus then as “rough,” noting the lack of landscaping, a number of sidewalks that didn’t end and numerous buildings that didn’t look like they belonged on a university campus.
“We didn’t have nice entrances and edges,” he says. “You couldn’t tell where the campus began and where it ended. And it wasn’t just the little houses throughout and the mobile home parks — our classroom buildings weren’t uniform and collegiate.”
Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost Mark Hammond arrived at Campbell a few years prior to Roberts as an assistant professor of biology, and he remembers not being very impressed by the campus during his first visit.
“It was a quaint, cute little campus,” he recalls. “I remember thinking, ‘Gosh, it could feel a little more collegiate.’”
Phase One of the master plan was all about “simply catching up,” according to Roberts. Capital expenditures were stagnant during the ’90s — Campbell averaged about $300,000 a year on capital projects from ’94-’99, spending just $80,000 on projects in 1996 — and Roberts says admissions applications mirrored that stagnation.
“Everything was flat,” he says. “Enrollment was flat, new infrastructure was flat and we were flat.”
Construction spending jumped from $503,000 in 2002 to more than $9.4 million in 2003, $20 million in 2006, and $45 and $44 million in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
The Pope Convocation Center will be one of Wallace’s lasting legacies, second perhaps only to the medical school that bears his name. Until 2009, Campbell was home to one of the oldest, smallest and most obsolete basketball arenas in the nation. Not only did it lack proper air conditioning, Carter Gym was four feet too short by Division I basketball standards.
But the convocation center became more than just a basketball and volleyball arena. The facility came equipped with new locker rooms, administrative offices, weight rooms, classroom and lab space, and a lobby that doubled as Campbell’s Sports Hall of Fame. It also came with a state-of-the-art fitness center and a practice gym that was larger than Carter.
“We knew we needed it for sports and graduation and event purposes, but we had no idea just how many purposes this building would serve,” Roberts says. “Special award ceremonies, visitation days, galas, dinners … you name it. Every now and then we have to take a break and let our teams practice in there.”
In addition to becoming an iconic image on campus — one that would add a popular bronze camel statue three years later — Pope served another important purpose for Campbell’s campus. It was an edge. An entry point. It told people they were entering a college campus.
“Students were finally saying, ‘Wow … this is a university,’” Roberts says. “It’s a thrilling thing to have been a part of.”
The hits just kept coming with Butler Chapel and the Gore Bell Tower and the law school’s move to downtown Raleigh that same year. In 2013, Campbell cut the ribbon on the Leon Levine Hall of Medical Sciences and completely renovated Barker-Lane and Jim Perry stadiums. Between 2008 and 2013, the University spent more than $171.4 million on capital projects, nearly 20 times the amount spent during the entire decade of the ’90s ($9.3 million).
The construction crews have remained busy heading into Wallace’s final academic year as president. The repaving of Main Street and the addition of new sidewalks, curbs and gutters marks another cleaning up of an “edge” to campus, Roberts says. The entrances to D. Rich and Taylor Hall have received a facelift, and the academic circle is in the process of getting new seating walls, brick walkways and landscaping and a bronze university seal surrounded by bluestone granite. McCall Hall was next in line in terms of residence hall improvements, and the Science Building’s facade was completely redone to not only resemble other buildings on campus, but to also make way for new windows for more energy efficiency.
“We’re basically finishing up some of the projects Dr. Wallace wanted to see done before he’s done,” Roberts says. “We’re getting ourselves well positioned as we prepare for a new president.”
“The aim of becoming an even more inviting and attractive campus will guide the improvement, re-arrangement and addition of facilities, resulting in a more defined, useful, safe and enjoyable campus environment for the university community.”
— President Jerry Wallace, 2003 inauguration speech
Campbell’s new Greek organizations will have homes with the construction of new fraternity and sorority houses on Leslie Campbell Avenue, across from Bob Barker Hall. Current homes are being restructured to house 12 students each and will include meeting rooms and storage space. Long-term plans include new homes in that area.
A new admissions building is planned near the roundabout across from the convocation center, where the current public safety building sits.
The biggest project on the horizon is a new student center, one that will rival the convocation center in terms of size and popularity, according to Roberts.
While it’s not set in stone, plans have been drawn for the new center, which will provide a much-needed gathering space for students along Leslie Campbell Avenue, between the two roundabouts on the northern edge of the Academic Circle. Described as the campus’ “living room,” the student center will contain dining facilities, a grand ballroom, gaming room, fitness center, large and small study group rooms and spaces for student government, student publications and Greek Life. It will also be home to several administrative departments, such as the office of the dean of students, Campus Ministries, Career Services, Student Development, Student Success, Residence Life, Student Life, Student Activities, Campus Recreation and Athletics.
“It’s unbelievably needed,” Roberts says. “It’s the one piece we’re missing, according to our students.”
Hammond says Campbell’s campus has finally earned the distinction of “collegiate.”
“We’ve always had great confidence in our academic programs, and this recent era of physical improvements has finally made us look on the outside how great we are academically,” he says. “We’re starting to look like what we are.”