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…"