“History repeats itself” and “Everything comes full circle,” are just two examples of a myriad of sayings that could describe the Catamount School starting the 2024-2025 school year on Western Carolina University’s campus. 

Western Carolina University will present the 2024 Mountain Heritage Awards during the Mountain Heritage Day festival Saturday, Sept. 28, on the Ingles Blue Ridge Stage around midday.  

To help address the critical workforce shortage in health care, nursing in particular, the University of North Carolina System initiated a call for grant proposals to distribute $40 million over a span of two years to UNC System schools. 

Matt Henley has been named interim director of athletic bands at Western Carolina University and will lead the Pride of the Mountains Marching Band this upcoming season while a national search is underway for a permanent director. 

The annual Mountain Artisans “Summertime” Arts & Crafts Show will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 28-29 in the Ramsey Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. 

On Friday, June 14, Western Carolina University’s Board of Trustees approved Chris Williams’ selection as its chief information officer. Williams, who comes to WCU after spending the last nine years as the IT director for Student Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will begin his new position Monday, June 24. 

Brian Byrd, Western Carolina University’s mosquito expert and professor in the environmental health sciences program, along with Scott Huffman, professor in WCU’s Department of Chemistry and Physics, have been approved for grant funding from NCInnovation to continue their work in developing tools that utilizes spectroscopy to analyze vibrational signals from mosquitoes. 

In its final week of classes, Western Carolina University became the subject of a video that went viral on social media in which a trans woman was filmed inside a women’s bathroom on campus. 

When Andrue Smith walks across the stage this spring after earning his bachelor’s degree in middle grades education and history, he will have charted a path for men of color wanting to become teachers. 

The Western Carolina University School of Nursing in Cullowhee is the recipient of a $2 million contribution from the Bedford Falls Foundation-DAF (“Bedford Falls”) that will provide scholarship support to undergraduate nursing students and enable the hiring of additional faculty to guide them in their clinical experiences.