Campbell College achieved senior-college status in 1961. In a speech he delivered on Founder's Day on March 6 of that year, President Campbell said: "On this observance of Founder's Day we stand on a pinnacle from which we have seen in retrospect glimpses of the unfolding drama of this institution for the past 74 years–drama filled with intense human struggle, accompanied here and there with temporary reverses with groping, frequently toward some promised land of destiny, partially 'hidden behind the ranges'; but thank God, with occasional vistas of inviting new tablelands of thrilling achievement just beyond [...] The transformation of Campbell into a senior college is a far more meaningful and involved process than superimposing the junior and senior years upon the already established junior college. Just as the transition from old Buies Creek Academy to a junior college, begun in 1926, in many respects involved the rebirth of the institution, and so now becoming a senior college will result in many modifications in administrative policy and in the program of the institution."