BUIES CREEK, North Carolina – Campbell University will officially install Dr. J. Bradley Creed as its fifth president on Friday, April 8, at 2 p.m. in the John W. Pope, Jr. Convocation Center during a ceremony that will celebrate Campbell as “a place of opportunities.”
Service learning activities will bookend installation-related events that will be held April 1-9.
“The installation of Dr. J. Bradley Creed as Campbell’s president will be a historic moment in the life of the university. He is just the fifth president in Campbell’s 129-year history,” said Campbell Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Mark L. Hammond, chair of the installation executive planning committee. “We look forward to this time of celebrating Dr. Creed and his installation, as well as celebrating the university as a place that prepares students for purposeful lives and meaningful service.”
Installation Week will begin with the campus’ annual Relay for Life on Friday, April 1, and conclude Saturday, April 9, with Operation INASMUCH, when Campbell students, faculty, and staff will spend the day serving others across Harnett County.
Other highlights during Installation Week will include a public lecture by Dr. Wayne Flynt, the renowned Auburn University professor emeritus of history and author of “Keeping the Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives.” He will speak on “What Harper Lee and Southern Small Towns Can Teach the World about Theology, History, Literature, Race, and Community” at 7 p.m., Monday, April 4, in Butler Chapel.
The following night, on Tuesday, April 5, at 7 p.m., Flynt and Creed will hold a public conversation in Butler Chapel as part of the President’s Forum.
Other events during the week include the “Running the Creek with Creed” 5K (Saturday, April 2, 8 a.m., begin at natatorium); University Worship Service (Sunday, April 3, at 7 p.m., Butler Chapel); Campbell Opera Theatre performing selections from “Carmen,” “Figaro,” and “The Elixir of Love” (Wednesday, April 6, at 7 p.m., Scott Concert Hall); a Cookout with the Creeds (Thursday, April 7, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., outside Marshbanks); and a showing of the movie “Creed” for students (Thursday, April 7, 9 p.m., Turner Auditorium).
The university has launched a microsite for the installation, www.campbell.edu/installation, where people can see the full list of events, sign up to attend events as registration opens, and learn more about the installation ceremony theme: “A place of opportunities.”
An accomplished leader of mission-driven institutions and a scholar and historian of religion, Creed began his duties as Campbell’s fifth president July 1, 2015. Previously, Creed was the provost, executive vice president, and professor of religion at Samford University, a private Christian university in Birmingham, Alabama.
Since Creed became president, Campbell has received its largest humanities-related grant in university history ($593,000 from Lilly Endowment Inc. to establish a youth theology institute); received approval from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to offer a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree (BSE) and enroll its charter class in August 2016; dedicated the state-of-the-art First Citizens Wealth Management Center in the Campbell Business School; received $8 million to establish The G. Eugene Boyce Center of Advocacy at Campbell Law; and been awarded hosts of the 2016 Big South Men’s Basketball Championship, which will be held March 3-6.