The Center for Health and Wellness (CHW) recently announced the termination of MiddSafe, a student-run mental health and violence prevention hotline that has been in use for more than a decade. Director of Health and Wellness Education Madeline Hope cited a decrease in student use as the reason for its termination. With the program Mental Health Peer Educators (MHPE) also ending due to low participation rates, CHW has introduced a new group called PEAR (Peers Educating for Affirming Relationships).
The hotline was a core part of Middlebury’s mental health support for the majority of its duration, offering 24/7 peer guidance on issues such as sexual assault, dating and domestic violence. The past few semesters, however, have seen a decrease in callers of over 90%, according to Hope. Participation in MHPE programming has similarly plummeted, dropping by 80%. Hope, in her Sept. 11 opinion piece for The Campus, stated that the shift “[made] it challenging for advocates and peer health educators to practice their skills.”
MiddSafe was founded in 2014, pioneering Middlebury’s mental health support boom at a time when resources were sparser on campus. Over the past few years, Middlebury’s wellness team has grown, with the number of nurse practitioners, violence prevention staff and sexual assault nurse examiners having more than doubled since MiddSafe’s introduction, according to Hope.
TimelyCare, a 24/7 telehealth option that previously existed in addition to MiddSafe, will assume the student-run hotline’s former function. Hope claimed in an email to The Campus that MiddSafe’s cancellation isn’t due to its failure, but its increasing obsolescence in light of drastic increases in support staff. She wrote that many campus groups have also changed their mental health policies to better provide for struggling students in recent years. As Middlebury’s mental health infrastructure has blossomed, the need for a central hotline decreased commensurately, Hope and CHW staff believe.
“Sunsetting the program in 2025 is bittersweet,” Hope wrote. “The program and the participants in it were an important resource for Middlebury students when professional staff resources were less available than they are today.”
However, some students believe that the hotline was underutilized due to a lack of awareness rather than a lack of necessity.
MiddSafe was a way for students to access school-specific, anonymous and nonjudgmental mental health support. Its members, called MiddSafe advocates, became state certified rape crisis workers through a two week intensive training before the start of the school year. Compensated with a stipend of $500 per semester, each member took on three to four half-week shifts a term, during which they kept a designated MiddSafe cellphone with them at all times. When on duty, they were required to be available to answer the phone 24/7, remain within 20 miles of campus and stay sober.
Hope described MiddSafe advocates as “bridges” between students and professionals, creating a peer-to-peer relationship that could lead to more serious support for a caller.
CHW manages dozens of niche programs, leading some students to feel lost in a sea of emails and posters.
“There’s so many different, small things,” Julia Randolph ’28 said. “It doesn’t feel streamlined.”
Annika Milliman ’25.5 was a MiddSafe advocate for three years and co-chaired the program last year. She said that while she and other members did notice an overall decrease in calls, there were sometimes as many as five or six in a week. She attributed the decline to a lack of a consistent staff supervisor to help promote the hotline.
“In my entire time that I have been a MiddSafe advocate, I’ve had about four or five supervisors and there has not been consistent messaging or promotion of the MiddSafe hotline across campus,” Milliman said. “It’s hard to maintain a presence on campus when there isn’t someone there constantly trying to promote this resource.”
Milliman said her experience with MiddSafe showed her the importance of accessible peer support on campus. TimelyCare employees, she noted, while trained professionals, could be based anywhere in the country and are not familiar with life at Middlebury.
“It’s very different to talk to someone who is 50 years old and in, let’s say, Oklahoma, than talking to a 20 year old who has been in your shoes and has an understanding of Middlebury College, of campus culture, of campus resources, specifically trained to help provide support in the [college] community," Milliman said. “It’s less intimidating.”
Milliman said that she and other MiddSafe advocates had been in conversations with staff about how the MiddSafe hotline might look different this year, but were not asked to weigh in on the decision to end it.
The cancellation of MiddSafe came as a shock to some students, even those who had not used the headline themselves.
“It feels good to know that there are more resources available. But yeah, it’s kind of shocking that it got shut down,” one student said.
Another student echoed those concerns, specifically because MiddSafe was the only hotline on campus that was student-run.
“If it’s student-run, then it’s people who really want to be there and genuinely believe in what they’re doing,” they said. “[The students] probably understand the same pressures that you’re experiencing.”
Both students mentioned residential staff as an alternative form of peer support as well as on-campus counseling, although one said that appointments can be difficult to schedule.
CHW is in the process of tailoring their programming to shifting student needs. Focusing their attention on proactive prevention and relationship violence, the center will continue to emphasize the philosophy of “Green Dot” and organize trainings to promote bystander intervention.
For now, Middlebury students that would’ve been interested in MiddSafe can involve themselves with PEAR. Struggling students have both Addison County and TimelyCare hotlines available for on-demand counseling and can schedule appointments with on-campus professionals. Hope encouraged students who know someone who is struggling or are struggling themselves to reach out to Health and Wellness for confidential support.
“We thank callers who trusted advocates with their stories and students who shared their passion as advocates for over a decade,” Hope concluded. “This is work we will miss deeply.”
Editor’s Note: Editor-in-Chief Madeleine Kaptein ’25.5 contributed reporting to this article. A previous version of this article included the names of two students commenting on the hotline's closure that have since been removed due to a misunderstanding over anonymity policies.
Correction 9/19/25: A previous version of this article stated that MiddSafe was founded in 2017. It was founded in 2014.
