In 2025, 37% of US college students reported symptoms of depression, 32% experienced symptoms of anxiety and 11% reported suicidal thoughts. These figures are cited in the Healthy Minds Survey, the nation’s largest study of mental health, conducted through the University of Michigan and Boston University.
Those drastic numbers highlight the need for mental health resources on college campuses. New Jersey sought to address that need through a statewide partnership with UWill, providing the students of over 45 different universities and colleges with free access to online mental health support. The program officially launched in 2023 under former governor Phil Murphy, and is available to any higher education institute receiving state aid.
UWill gives students access to scheduled online counseling with a licensed therapist and due to the statewide partnership, is freely accessible to all registered students. The partnership also previously provided Monmouth University students with a 24/7 line connecting them to a therapist, according to Christopher McKittrick, Director at Monmouth’s Counseling and Prevention Services (CPS).
While New Jersey was the first state in the nation to create an initiative like this, other states have followed suit since, with the Technical College System of Georgia launching a very similar statewide campaign, partnering with UWill to offer their services to 16 participating schools. While some state schools have also pushed for mental health support and partnered with UWill, like the Ohio State University, which provides services for over 70,000 students, New Jersey and Georgia remain the only states that have offered statewide coverage so far.
In March 2026, UWill released a report titled “Three Years of Impact,” highlighting the program’s results over the three years since its implementation. Some of the statistics include over 110,000 therapy sessions offered to 23,965 students who used UWill’s services over every single partnered institution. In addition, 31% of therapy sessions occurred after 9-5 hours, emphasizing the importance of 24/7 crisis connection that can be there when CPS is not. Students also gave a resounding 9.6/10 feedback rating to UWill’s services.
However, questions about continued funding have complicated the future of campus mental health support. The original effort relied on COVID relief funds, six years later, now raising concern on how services will continue after that temporary funding ends.
The question of the future of mental health funding was cause for concern for 2025-2026 Monmouth Student Government Association (SGA) president Brendan Sheehan.
“Those funds were set to expire, and in addition to that, the current administration had cut $2 billion from the substance abuse and mental health agency for colleges and universities,” Sheehan said. “That was going to be pretty devastating to see what that might look like. It was quickly reversed, that $2 billion, but the fact that they were willing to do it, and maybe do it again, really provided us the urgency to act.”
This inspired Sheehan to reach out to all of the SGA presidents in New Jersey and explain his plan. Sheehan was a fundamental part of authoring a letter to the governor arguing for the continuation of UWill, signed by himself and over 15 other NJ student body presidents. This influential letter, as well as a high-stakes campaign effort from Sheehan and others, finalized Sherrill’s decision. In July 2026, free access to UWill services were officially extended into the 2026-2027 school year.
“We really led the charge … we really started pushing, we started reaching out to staffers for the governor, staff members for the Secretary of Higher Education. And kind of really annoyed them, putting out emails all the time, reminding them and asking them for an update.”
Despite the good news of UWill access extensions, at Monmouth, some changes have already occurred. Mckittrick says students still have access to free scheduled UWill teletherapy, but the previous 24/7 therapist access line has ended.
“There used to be an access line,” McKittrick said. “You could pick it up, at New Year’s Eve as the ball dropped, therapist. That doesn’t exist. You do have to schedule.” McKittrick added that it wasn’t necessarily the actual therapy that was most helpful to students, but the knowledge that they had the extra resource to rely on at all times.
McKittrick also said Monmouth connects students with 2NDFLOOR, which offers support through texting, online chat, and phone calls. He described it as another source of around-the-clock support, while noting that students are not necessarily speaking with a therapist. 2NDFLOOR’s services are available 24/7 to youth aged 10-24, and operates through a text and call crisis hotline run by trained volunteers. Their services are free of cost, though they differ from UWill because, despite being a viable and accessible assistance for students, they are not necessarily reaching a qualified therapist.
Upon learning about 2NDFLOOR’s services, the Outlook set out to research what this platform does for students, especially intrigued to learn who students were speaking to when asking for help. However, the website offered limited information on the qualifications of their volunteer counselors, and when attempting to learn more with the website’s chat feature, the Outlook was only redirected to the “about us” page, unclear if they were speaking to a human or an AI chatbot, and kicked from the chat after three minutes of inactivity without confirming an end to the conversation.
Alongside that online resource, CPS provides direct counseling, outreach, prevention activities and training. McKittrick said direct student care remains the office’s first priority.
CPS also faces the challenge of meeting student demand with available staff. The office offers up to eight counseling sessions per semester when appropriate, with exceptions for crises. McKittrick attributed that approach to staffing changes.
Despite those pressures, he said keeping counseling free remains a priority.
“It is our goal to keep it free,” McKittrick said.
“It makes it much easier to reach out for help because you don’t have the added financial burden holding you back,” said an anonymous UWill user and junior at Monmouth. “The free services make such a difference because you don’t have to tell anyone, not friends or parents. It’s completely anonymous, you can just go and get help if you need it, without any financial or social pressure. If it was not free, I don’t think I or a majority of people that go to CPS would be seeing anyone.”
A separate state grant of approximately $250,000, received in 2023 through New Jersey’s Office of the Secretary of Higher Education, helped support programming, professional development and community partnerships, he said. That grant is expected to expire in November, with no renewal anticipated at the time of the interview.
“We have started sunsetting some of the programs that were funded through there because we have not had the resources on campus,” McKittrick said.
One program McKittrick expressed he hopes to sustain is the university’s therapy dog programming. Existing trained dogs may continue visiting with volunteer handlers, he said, but additional funding would help support training and expand the pool of dogs available to community organizations.
He is working with the university’s grant officer to explore other funding sources.
As temporary funding ends, CPS is looking to outside grants and community partnerships to sustain its work. What remains uncertain is how much of the programming developed over the past several years can continue.
“It is definitely something that is on the top of my priority list,” said Mark Volpe, current SGA vice president. “I’m going to keep working on it, making sure the university administration knows that it is a priority. I have a meeting with McKittrick coming up soon, so I’m going to reaffirm our commitment there and see if there’s any other ways we could promote CPS more.”
