Universities and colleges across the United States are finding that an ever-increasing number of students on their campuses are dealing with a variety of mental health issues, ranging from anxiety and depression to thoughts of suicide.

Recent studies and surveys indicate that nearly 45 percent of college students nationally report symptoms of depression, while almost 40 percent report experiencing anxiety.

Perhaps most concerning – up to 15 percent of college students have contemplated suicide. U.S. campuses report that approximately 1,100 students take their own lives each year, making suicide the second-leading cause of death among that demographic.

Western Carolina University is not immune from this growing mental health crisis. Thanks to a significant financial contribution from a WCU alumna, the university’s Counseling and Psychology Services Center now will be able to increase its evaluation and treatment of students struggling with depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.

Rebecca Schlosser, a 1973 graduate of WCU and former member of the university’s Board of Trustees, recently made a transformative gift to WCU that will enable the center to greatly enhance its services by expanding access, increasing outreach and strengthening its ability to support student well-being.

“For me personally, mental health awareness came to the forefront when my son began struggling with mental health issues in 2007 and 2008 during his junior and senior year in college,” said Schlosser, a resident of Greensboro.

That son, David Edmond Wesley Schlosser, died unexpectedly at the age of 25, just nine days after graduating from Elon University.

“Students need to feel comfortable receiving mental health services,” Schlosser said. “College campuses should prioritize destigmatizing mental health, offering accessible resources and creating a supportive environment. Many times, mental health issues begin in early adulthood, which falls right during the college years. Dealing with the demands of college can add increased anxiety.”

She and her late husband, Greensboro attorney and former Guilford County District Attorney Michael A. Schlosser, made gifts in 2016 to create the David E. W. Schlosser Endowed Scholarship Fund in their son’s memory to provide support for students with demonstrated financial need in WCU’s Brinson Honors College.

They also agreed that they wanted to do something more to provide much-needed resources to WCU to help the university in its efforts to provide services to students struggling with mental health issues, in part to help parents and other family members avoid the heartache that they endured with the loss of their son.

The Schlossers later updated their financial plans to include a commitment to create an endowment to support the work of WCU’s Counseling and Psychological Services Center, a commitment that was fulfilled earlier this year.

In recognition of the gift establishing a program endowment for the center often referred to as CAPS, the university’s Board of Trustees has approved the facility’s renaming to the Schlosser Family Center for Counseling and Psychological Services.

The Schlosser Family Center for Counseling and Psychological Services has a mission of empowering students to engage in and be successful in a range of academic, social and cultural endeavors through fostering psychological wellness. The center provides individual and group counseling to students on a short-term basis at no cost as well as emergency services when a student is experiencing a mental health crisis. It is located in Suite 225 in the Bird Building and reaches beyond its physical office by offering tele-mental health services and appointments at WCU’s Biltmore Park off-campus instructional site.

Over the past few years, the center has consistently offered more than 7,000 appointments to an average of approximately 1,100 individual students annually, said Kim Gorman, associate vice chancellor for health and wellness.

Despite those numbers, the center has not experienced a significant increase in student usage of its services, which is most likely related to a limit in the ability to serve a larger number of students given current staffing restraints, said Caroline Engler, CAPS director. But the center has seen significant increases over the last three years in the severity and complexity of mental health issues presented by student clients, Engler said.

“Our data is consistent with Center for Collegiate Mental Health data in that we continue to see a rise in reported experiences of history of trauma. Additionally, according to CCMH data, WCU students report more frequent and intense experiences with depression, anxiety, eating concerns and suicidal ideation as compared to the national average,” she said.

“Although our students report higher levels of acuity than the national average, our data also indicates that, with treatment, they report more significant declines in experiences of suicidal ideation and overall distress than the CCMH national averages,” Engler said.

An official naming ceremony for the Schlosser Family Center for Counseling and Psychological Services is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 4. Fittingly, September is National Suicide Prevention Month.

“Renaming CAPS is more than just changing the name,” Rebecca Schlosser said. “I speak also on behalf of my late husband. It was our goal to provide this endowed funding to support WCU’s Counseling and Psychological Services and to help to destigmatize the challenges surrounding mental health. Our family wishes to help shine a bright light of hope along this very difficult pathway,” Rebecca Schlosser said.

“To the students at WCU, if you feel you need mental health support, I encourage you to seek services at the Schlosser Family Center for Counseling and Psychological Services,” she said. “You are not alone.”

The Schlosser contribution will enable the center to greatly increase the level of counseling and other psychological services it offers and improve and expand its training program so that additional providers will be able to more adequately address the growing need for mental health services at WCU.

Numerous factors are playing a role in the rise of mental health issues in the United States in recent years, said Engler.

“There is a trend that individuals who seek treatment at university counseling centers have been engaged in treatment prior to coming to college. This tells us that their distress levels are affecting individuals in middle and high schools,” she said.

The global COVID-19 pandemic is frequently cited as one primary source of the increase in mental health issues among young people, causing uncertainty and fear of the unknown, disrupting social connections and interrupting academic schedules, Engler said.

“However, the pandemic simply intersected with other ongoing social factors including the divisiveness we are seeing in our communities – and in our families. This is having an impact on our sense of community and belongingness, both factors that are essential for good mental health,” she said. “Furthermore, research shows the impact of social media has been problematic and contributing to mental health symptoms. Finally, there is much evidence of the impact of sleep disruption, often caused by excessive cell phone use and gaming, on mental health symptoms for teens.”

The additional services made possible by the Schlosser gift will help a larger number of students receive the mental health services they need to be able to stay enrolled in school and on track to graduate, said Gorman.

A 2023 research project conducted by Gorman and WCU colleague Kathleen Brennan, professor of sociology, found that students who seek help for their mental health issues are more likely to persist in their educational journey.

“We know that our services are helpful for retention of students as demonstrated by our recent study. The results indicate a higher number of counseling sessions was helpful in retention efforts for all students at the university,” Gorman said. “So, this gift is an investment in our students.”

Gorman and Brennan published the results of their study in a paper titled “More Sessions Make a Difference: University Counseling Centers and Student Retention” in the June 2023 edition of the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice.

“We just feel immense gratitude,” Gorman said. “This gift is an incredible acknowledgement of the importance of mental health services at WCU.”

Rebecca Schlosser earned her bachelor’s degree in education. While a student at WCU, she was a member of Delta Zeta sorority, spent four years as a majorette with the marching band, and was a member of both Kappa Delta Pi and Alpha Phi Sigma honor societies. The WCU chapter of Phi Delta Kappa named her Most Outstanding Female Student at WCU her senior year.

After completing her undergraduate studies, she taught at a private all-girls school in New York before returning to school at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, earning her master’s degree in education there in 1983. During her time at UNCG, she met her future husband and helped him start his law firm.

Mike Schlosser was a graduate of Virginia Military Institute and Wake Forest University School of Law. He died in February 2024, 10 years after he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and amyloidosis as a result of his exposure to Agent Orange as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Paratrooper Corps serving a tour in South Vietnam.

Rebecca Schlosser served on the WCU Board of Trustees from 2017 until 2023 and formerly served on the university’s Foundation Board of Directors and Board of Visitors. A member of the Madison Legacy and Cullowhee giving societies, she served on the steering committee for WCU’s previous “Lead the Way” comprehensive fundraising campaign. She is an involved member of the Triad alumni chapter and frequently hosts Triad-area events at her Greensboro home. The Schlossers have been annual donors to WCU since 1990.

The naming of the Schlosser Family Center for Counseling and Psychological Services comes as WCU is in the midst of the public phase of its “Fill the Western Sky” comprehensive fundraising campaign, an effort to raise a minimum of $100 million in philanthropic support for the university’s academic, student engagement and athletics programs.

For more information about the “Fill the Western Sky” campaign or to make a contribution, visit WesternSky.wcu.edu, call 828-227-7124 or email advancement@wcu.edu.

The Time is Now To Fill The Western Sky

Efrain Arias of Lexington spent the first half of 2023 studying finance in Madrid, Spain, as part of Western Carolina University’s Undergraduate Study Abroad Program. He described it as a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

“I have always wanted to adapt more into my Spanish culture by studying in a Spanish country,” Arias said during a telephone interview from Spain. “It was very beneficial for me to speak with locals and study finance with other foreign students.”

Elizabeth Lohbauer, who is now starting her junior year at WCU, participated in a record-breaking 2022-23 season as one of the Catamounts’ top golfers helping to revitalize the program. She described her student life at WCU as fulfilling and a great time to build bonds with faculty, staff and students that will last a lifetime.

“It’s been a wonderful experience as a student to be surrounded by so many people who live around the world,” Lohbauer said. “I see new faces every day on campus. I think the community is good at Western and I have learned there is a lot of support from faculty and staff, which I love. I just feel very welcomed.”

Having a new, larger facility will benefit all of us because it will allow teams to practice in a better facility and have a more flexible schedule.

– ELIZABETH LOHBAUER

Both Catamounts and countless more like them will be the beneficiaries of WCU’s new $75 million “Fill the Western Sky” Comprehensive Campaign, which includes philanthropic priorities to update athletic facilities and allow more students to experience academic activities beyond the classroom. The five-year campaign is about the “promises” that propel WCU’s progress, including WCU’s mission and vision for the Western North Carolina region and beyond.

“While the institution’s previous ‘Lead the Way’ fundraising campaign rightly focused on student scholarships, we must turn our attention to improving the complete student experience through experiential learning opportunities, regional engagement and involvement in the arts and athletics,” said WCU Chancellor Kelli Brown.

Brown also said the campaign is focusing, for the first time in WCU’s philanthropic history, on supporting athletics. Jamie Raynor, vice chancellor for Advancement, said donors are excited about the campaign, which is presently in the leadership phase securing major gifts.

“We harness our academic and athletic momentum to go further, reflect deeper and work harder for the betterment of our institution and our community,” Raynor said. “The time is now to rise to the occasion and ‘Fill the Western Sky’ with financial resources that will propel our academic student experiences and support student life at WCU, including much needed updates to current and new athletic facilities.”

Alex Gary, WCU director of athletics, said the campaign is more than just about raising money. “It’s about providing a first-class experience for our current and former student-athletes while instilling pride in our alumni base who can be proud of what we have here at Western,” he said.

Building a championship culture through competitive success

Gary said updating WCU’s athletic facilities are part of his overall goal of improving a “championship culture.”

“When I started this job in 2020, I wanted to enhance our competitive success,” he said. “I was, and continue to be, excited about Chancellor Brown’s vision. We are not only playing sports at WCU but playing to win. At the same time, we are providing our student-athletes with the tools necessary to win after college into their careers. So, our goal is to position them to win through lifelong success in whatever they choose.”

Through the generosity of campaign donors, WCU will be able to address numerous athletic facility enhancements, including updating or building a new academic and student-athlete development center, an expanded strength and conditioning center, a sports medicine suite, a new press box and new premium seating in E.J. Whitmire Stadium, reconstructing the east side of Whitmire Stadium, a field sports building to replace Camp Gymnasium, new football locker room and meeting rooms, among other projects. Gary said athletics have steadily invested in WCU teams by providing additional personnel support, but even that has its limitations.

“It’s hard to be competitive when you don’t have the same resources,” he said. “We have started some facility improvements with the recently completed basketball locker room and film room projects, but this campaign will help us to make some desperately needed upgrades that support all 350+ student-athletes and rival any athletic facilities in the Southern Conference.” Lohbauer agrees.

“I think that having a larger weight room, because of donors who give to this campaign, will be an amazing asset for us,” she said. “It would be great to not really have to worry about when I can come in to work out because of the new space which allows for a more flexible schedule.” Lohbauer said the old Camp Building is in definite need of replacement. The golf team’s currently use the building sometimes as a practice area in case of inclement weather outside.

“It’s hard to fit both men’s and women’s golf teams in this small, old building that can’t really hold a lot of people,” Lohbauer said. “We also share the building with the two track teams. Having a new, larger facility will benefit all of us because it will allow teams to practice in a better facility and allow a more flexible schedule.” Updated athletic facilities will give WCU some much-needed curb appeal.

“Increasing private support for our student-athletes will be a major part of this campaign as we seek the funding necessary for critical and long-overdue upgrades to our athletics infrastructure,” Brown said. “Athletics has long been considered the ‘front porch’ of an institution, and frankly, our front porch is in desperate need of significant renovations.”

Deepen learning by supporting academic excellence

On campus, undergraduates work alongside faculty, conducting real-world research to jump-start their professional careers. In doing so, they develop critical thinking and technical skills while building relationships with faculty. Through the generosity of campaign donors, WCU will be able to enhance these experiences so that students can make an impact long after they graduate.

“Whether our students are participating in days of service or excelling in paid internships that launch careers, students at WCU are engaged and learning, both in and out of the classroom,” Raynor said. “Donors to this campaign will help to make these initiatives and their impact on students more accessible. Their support gives our student affairs and academic affairs teams the momentum they need to bring real-world cultural experiences and onsite job training to our students. With these skills, Catamounts enter the world not only as prepared career- seekers, but as fully developed leaders.”

WCU students who study abroad immerse themselves in new cultural and societal experiences. From Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology to Germany’s Ludwigsburg University of Education, students study abroad in more than 60 different countries. Arias, a double major in business administration and law/finance, knows all too well how this will benefit students after spending five months in Madrid.

“Studying abroad definitely met my expectations of learning new social norms from a different culture,” Arias said. “It also felt good adapting to different festivities they had going on, especially along the Barcelona strip. I felt as though I was able to immerse myself in that country and learn more about its history and its celebrations.”

Arias was able to participate in the program after getting a $4,000 scholarship. He said more scholarships such as this will afford opportunities to more students who decide to t ake the same path. He will now take that experience into his senior year starting this fall and into his life beyond WCU when he graduates.

Campaign donations will go beyond just helping students

Brown said that the impact of donors is critical to this campaign’s success and how WCU continues to be a leader as a comprehensive regional university. Over the decades, the university has expanded its reach, attracting students from across the nation and around the world, while never losing sight of the university’s role in meeting the needs of Western North Carolina.

“It is now time to achieve the next milestone in propelling our progress,” Brown said. “We must continue to leverage the expertise of our faculty and staff, our most abundant resource, in service to the people of this region and the state to ensure economic vitality, with a particular emphasis on filling critical industry gaps in health care, education, engineering, psychology, criminal justice and tourism. And we must provide robust and meaningful opportunities for our students by enhancing their total experience during their years with us.”

Together, we can Fill the Western Sky

The campaign planning began at the start of Chancellor Brown’s tenure; all gifts to the WCU Foundation since July 1, 2019 are included towards the goal. Now that the campaign is nearing completion of the leadership phase, both Advancement and athletic fundraisers will be reaching out to all groups who are connected to the university. Alumni, students, faculty, staff, donors, private businesses, foundations and new friends will be able to connect through traditional meetings and a new “Fill the Western Sky” interactive website where they can help with the campaign. All donations are welcome, so WCU can not only meet, but surpass the $75 million campaign goal with the hope of concluding the campaign in 2026.