Harnett County Institutions of Higher Education Earn Praise and Recognition
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One thing to remember when thinking about higher education in Harnett County: emphasize the word “higher.” While Harnett retains that decidedly “country” ambiance that draws people‚ education here is the kind that attracts attention – in people‚ recognition and money.
It’s not the little engine that could – it’s the big engine that does.
Campbell University‚ for instance‚ is the nation’s second-largest Baptist university‚ with a $92 million budget and a $35 million payroll. It’s the county’s second-largest employer. The fall 2007 freshman class was its largest ever‚ and the school has more than 4‚000 students.
“Campbell is proud to be Harnett County’s four-year liberal arts institution‚” says Dr. John Roberson‚ vice president for marketing and planning.
He lauds the school’s undergraduate and graduate degrees‚ plus professional programs in pharmacy‚ education‚ business and law.
“Our law school has been the national champion in moot court competitions and the only law school to ever post a 100-percent passage rate on the North Carolina state bar exam‚” he says. “Many years we lead the state in bar passage‚ as we did last year.”
That’s no easy feat when your competition is Wake Forest‚ Duke and UNC Chapel Hill.
The school’s most recent academic program‚ added in 1995‚ is the divinity school. Campbell is building the $30 million John W. Pope Jr. Convocation Center; fundraising for the 109‚000-square-foot building‚ with a basketball arena‚ topped $33 million‚ enough for a maintenance endowment for the future.
Meanwhile‚ Central Carolina Community College’s Harnett County campuses count more than 4‚600 students‚ across all classes.
Today it’s building the West Harnett Center campus‚ in the Western Harnett Industrial Park‚ targeting a late 2008 opening. The industrial park‚ on Highway 87‚ capitalizes on the Fort Bragg military base expansion.
“We already have two temporary structures out there and offer a few classes‚” says Dr. Matt Garrett‚ president of CCCC. “The county just opened the industrial park; we’ll be the first ones in.”
The college is also expanding at a new 130-acre biotech park near the county courthouse‚ working with Campbell University and the Harnett Forward Together Committee. This park will focus on biotechnology‚ with a pharmacy research program from Campbell‚ a hospital‚ and a plan calling for headquarters or regional offices for a large biopharmaceutical firm.
“The biotech park is pretty close to the center of the county‚” Garrett says. “We’ve built a lab at our Lillington Campus nearby to help train the workforce that’s coming.”
“We want to improve our citizens’ quality of life economically‚ socially and culturally‚” says Bill Tyson‚ CCCC Harnett County Provost.
Their efforts have done so: The 2007 North Carolina Community College System’s Critical Success Factors Report gave Central Carolina a perfect score in meeting the system’s 12 standards for success.
“Only seven community colleges in the state achieved this distinction‚” Garrett says.
Story by Paul Hughes
Photo by Jeffrey S. Otto
