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. 

A long-awaited $37 million upgrade to renovate the west side stands of Western Carolina University’s aging E.J. Whitmire Stadium is now underway with an official groundbreaking ceremony held Thursday, June 12, in the shadows of the construction zone.

The often-discussed renovation has become a reality thanks to contributions to the university’s current “Fill the Western Sky” comprehensive fundraising campaign and through the support of the mandatory fees paid by WCU students as part of their cost of attendance.

The project includes a new press box and media center, coaches’ offices, player study spaces and a hospitality area called the “Western Skybox” as an homage to the campaign making the improvements possible.

The four-story expansion will modernize the stadium’s west stands, creating nearly 10,000 square feet of space dedicated to coaching, media, and game-day operations and hospitality. The state-of-the-art football operations area will feature 12 offices, a video room, offensive and defensive conference rooms and multiple meeting spaces.

The upgraded press box will accommodate approximately 155 people and will include game day coaching booths. The new hospitality level will provide a premium experience for more than 400 guests, with enhanced concessions and views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The renovation also will provide critical space for the university’s emergency operations center.

Completed in 1974, E.J. Whitmire Stadium celebrated its 50th anniversary during the 2024 football season.

The project is the first in a planned series of upgrades to facilities used by Catamount student-athletes, WCU Chancellor Kelli R. Brown told a crowd of more than 300 gathered for the ceremony.

“This is just one piece of our broader vision to create opportunities for students, build our legacy and ensure the success of our athletics programs,” Brown said. “We are taking a phased approach in much-needed and long-overdue upgrades to our athletics facilities, starting with these upgrades and featuring the flexibility for additional enhancements –  not just here at Whitmire Stadium but across all of our athletics programs.”

Donations that have been made as part of the “Fill the Western Sky” fundraising campaign are an important part of the funding picture for the stadium renovation, as financial support from alumni and friends is helping the university in its efforts to enhance the overall student experience, said Casey Cooper, chair of the WCU Board of Trustees.

“Your commitment is making a real difference in the lives of our students,” Cooper said, addressing the donors. “From scholarships to academic excellence endowments and from student engagement and experiential learning to critical investments in campus infrastructure, your contributions are at the heart of WCU’s continued success.”

Those donations are supplemented by financial support from WCU students through the athletics fee they pay, he said. “This is an incredible partnership between students past, present and future; alumni and friends; community members; and fans of Catamount sports teams,” Cooper said.

In the fall of 2021, the Student Government Association approved a resolution supporting an increase in that fee, with the dollars generated to go toward improvement of Catamount athletics facilities. The increase, expected to generate $30 million in funding for athletics facilities renovations, was later endorsed by the WCU Board of Trustees and then by the University of North Carolina System Board of Governors.

“The individuals who will benefit most directly from these upgraded facilities are student-athletes. And as the name makes clear, they are students first – our classmates, our friends, our neighbors. They compete with passion and represent us with pride, and they deserve facilities that match their commitment,” said current SGA President Grady Jones.

“And this isn’t just for athletes. All students benefit when our campus becomes a hub of pride and tradition. From tailgates to touchdowns, sporting events help shape the college experience. They connect us today and bring us back tomorrow – as alumni, as mentors, as lifelong Catamounts,” Jones said. “I can’t wait for when I return to Cullowhee on a crisp fall day, join thousands of voices in the stands and see firsthand what we started here today.”

Randy White, a co-chair of the “Fill the Western Sky” campaign steering committee, reminded ceremony attendees that the current campaign is the third in WCU history, but the first with a major emphasis on financial support for athletics facilities.

“Our previous campaigns have focused on raising funds for endowed professorships to help increase the quality of our faculty and for endowed scholarships so we can provide access to higher education to a larger number of students,” White said.

“Those campaigns have resulted in robust academic offerings and a higher level of support for student scholarships. Now, it is past time that we turn our attention toward improvements for our athletics programs and facilities and increase scholarship support for student-athletes. Our facilities have grown long in the tooth and are in need of much attention,” he said.

Ben Pendry, vice chancellor for advancement, provided a progress report on the “Fill the Western Sky” campaign, an effort to raise a minimum of $100 million in support of WCU’s academic, student engagement and athletics programs. The campaign, launched shortly after Brown’s selection as chancellor in 2019, progressed through a leadership phase before its public launch earlier this year.

“Together, we are building a legacy that will continue to grow and flourish for generations to come. It is with your ongoing support that we are able to take the next step in the ‘Fill the Western Sky’ comprehensive fundraising campaign, an ambitious initiative that will elevate the experiences of our students and our community,” Pendry said, announcing that the initiative had reached 91.4% of its goal.

“Now, you may have noticed that I said our campaign goal is a minimum of $100 million. The key word there is ‘minimum.’ Once we blow past that goal – which we will do – we will keep going, because with your loyal support, the potential of this incredible university is unlimited,” he said.

Prior to the ceremonial breaking of ground, Cooper expressed appreciation for the 65 donors who have made leadership gifts of $100,000 or more toward renovations of WCU’s athletics facilities.

The ceremony doubled as Planting Day, an annual gathering hosted by WCU’s Division of Advancement and WCU Foundation to thank donors who comprise the Madison Legacy Society and the Cullowhee Society and to honor their record of major financial contributions to the university.

The Madison Legacy Society, which recognizes donors who have made planned gifts to the university or the WCU Foundation, currently has 189 members. The Cullowhee Society, which acknowledges cumulative giving of gifts totaling $100,000 or more, now has 303 members, with some donors included in both giving societies. The 444 members of the two giving societies have made gifts and pledges totaling more than $203 million.

Kyle Pifer, recently appointed director of athletics at WCU, closed the event with a message of gratitude and an appeal for ongoing support.

“We know that this renovation is just the beginning of many more to come. Together, we will continue to build the legacy of ‘Fill the Western Sky,’ supporting our students, our programs and our athletics achievements,” Pifer said.

“As we look ahead with excitement, we invite you to deepen your connection to Catamount athletics by joining the Catamount Club and securing your season tickets today. Your support helps fuel our momentum and ensures our student-athletes continue to thrive – on and off the field,” he said.

The first phase of stadium upgrades is expected to be completed by the beginning of the 2026 football season. The project will not affect the 2025 schedule, but it will create changes in game day parking and stadium access.

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