Western Carolina University (WCU) is a public university in Cullowhee, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system.
The fifth oldest institution of the sixteen four-year universities in the UNC system, WCU was founded to educate the people of the western North Carolina mountains.
The school was founded in 1888 as Cullowhee Academy by Robert Lee Madison. The school changed its name several times as it grew from a secondary school to a state institution - Cullowhee High School (1889-1905), Cullowhee Normal & Industrial School (1905-1925), Cullowhee State Normal School (1925-1929), Western Carolina Teachers College (1929-1953), and Western Carolina College (1953-1967). In 1967, the institution became Western Carolina University.
