From the Community | Stanford may defund a pillar of mental health on campus. We need your help to save it.

“Whether you are seeking advice to establish your self-care routine, looking for ways to manage stress or mental health symptoms, need tips to help a friend, someone supportive to talk to, or anything in between, you are not alone.”

— Office of Student Affairs, Stanford University.  

Stanford says it provides a suite of mental health services through CAPS and other Vaden Health programs. However, were you to find yourself in need of these services between the hours of 5 p.m. and 9 a.m., you would most likely be left to deal on your own, were it not for the Bridge Peer Counseling Center. Despite its legacy of providing free, anonymous and 24/7 support to the Stanford community for over 50 years, the Bridge is now at risk of being defunded and dehoused by the Office of Student Affairs. To keep the Bridge open, we need students, faculty and the broader Stanford community to urge the Provost to provide long-term funding and a stable location so that we can focus on our true mission: to make sure no student is left to deal with their struggles alone.

The Bridge is Stanford’s 24/7 student-run mental health center, and has been serving the Stanford community since its founding in 1971. Both graduate and undergraduate students can walk into our physical center from 9 a.m. to midnight, or call our number at any hour, to talk with a fellow student about anything from relationship or academic stress to an acute crisis situation. 

Student counselors are the heart of the Bridge. They are comprehensively trained to provide anonymous and confidential support, and volunteer their time to ensure on-demand counseling services are available to everyone completely free of charge. Four student leaders (“the live-ins”) reside at the center to answer overnight calls and support staffers during and after challenging counsels, knitting the Bridge community into a firm safety net for everyone at Stanford. This residential model has been vital in sustaining the Bridge as one of the oldest peer counseling institutions in the country, and one of the few to provide instant support at all hours of the day.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bridge was based in Rogers House — a consistent, central location that made it easy for students to find support. However, when the University went online in 2020 and students were not allowed to return to campus, Student Affairs made the sudden decision to remove the Bridge from Rogers House and place it in Munger Graduate Housing. This action came with a hefty cost: the Bridge must now secure around $80,000 in funding for rent annually in order to remain on campus. 

In the immediate aftermath of our removal from Rogers House, Student Affairs offered to cover the cost of the new center. However, despite knowing of the decades-long legacy, high utilization and vital niche filled by the Bridge, Student Affairs has provided less and less funding year by year, and has refused to commit to long-term support for the Bridge’s operations. In recent years, the burden of keeping the center running has started to fall on the four live-ins, who must pay a total of over $20,000 out of their own pockets to keep the center in its current location. This has created a challenging set of barriers for students — both those who seek the Bridge’s services and those who seek to work with us — as the constant location-shifting creates confusion in the student population and the continuous withdrawal of financial support steadily weakens the Bridge’s stability.

Now, after years of waning support, Student Affairs is considering defunding the Bridge entirely. Even despite knowing that two-thirds of counsels (204 out of 307 total) last year occurred during the hours when University resources like CAPS are closed for walk-ins, and despite hearing student testimonies which demonstrate the necessity of the current residential model, Student Affairs asked the Bridge to consider eliminating the residential component, and removing live-ins entirely. 

This change would mean the end of the Bridge as it stands today. Without live-ins, the quality of our services would deteriorate and our overnight hotline would vanish. It is the live-ins which enable the Bridge to provide 24/7 service. The loss of our live-ins would mean that the 60+ staffers who currently volunteer at the Bridge would lose a critical layer of support in crisis counsels. Without the live-in model — a half-century-old testament to Stanford students’ compassion and commitment to service — the Bridge could not sustain its services, and Stanford would soon lose its sole anonymous peer-counseling center.

In truth, this is not the first time Student Affairs has tried to save on costs by threatening the existence of the Bridge. In 1979, Director of Student Activities Thomas Massey threatened to dissolve the live-in role and evict the Bridge from its space on campus.  However, after just one month of student and faculty outrage, he concluded that “the Bridge should have live-in staffers because it provides 24/7 emergency counseling to the Stanford Community.” Exactly one decade later, Student Affairs similarly threatened to get rid of the live-in model and remove the Bridge from its home. Fortunately, a young live-in named Cory Booker worked with his peers to lead a wave of public outcry that saved the Bridge and allowed it to remain in service. 

In the decades since, the issue of student mental health has only continued to grow in prominence. And yet, the University cannot help but fall back on the same, tired playbook in order to cut costs. We are using this opportunity to show Stanford once again that the mental health of our students is a top priority, full stop. And just like in the past, we need the Stanford community to rally behind us.

We cannot forget that the Bridge is home not only to a rich legacy but also a modern impact with deeply personal implications for many Stanford students. This is best exemplified by an anonymous experience from a Bridge counsel that took place just last quarter, which is separately published alongside this op-ed. 

We are so grateful to have been able to support this student through a hard time and appreciate the courage they have to share their important story with the community. One aspect of their story that we want to highlight is the power of peer support in a vulnerable time like this, when seeking professional help isn’t preferred or even possible. The events of that night are a resounding reminder of the power and reliability of peer support and compassion. This is the critical gap the Bridge fills on this campus: a peer counseling center, open around the clock. Had it not been for the incredible counselor and live-ins who stayed up through the entire night because of their deep care for this student’s life, the student may have never gotten the help they needed.

The Bridge has been and must continue to be here on campus for our Stanford community. It embodies the epitome of what it means to be a Stanford student, a community that cares about one another and supports one another no matter what. We cannot sit idly by while Student Affairs strips this campus of a longstanding mental health resource — where students can walk in and receive free counseling — all while refusing to provide long term funding for a student-run program which has saved lives and continues to do so. 

For over 50 years, the Bridge has been a pillar for students to lean on during hard times. Now, we must lean on the student body, faculty, and alumni of the last 50 years, and ask for your support. Please consider signing our petition here. Together, we will let Provost Jenny Martinez know that the Stanford community stands with the Bridge, and demands the administration provide a stable location and long-term funding for the center. The Stanford community has always deserved it, and we still do.

To support the Bridge Peer Counseling Center in our fight to stay open, please sign our petition and share it widely with your peers! We can’t do this without you.

If you or someone you know is struggling, you are not alone. The Bridge is here to talk. Call us at (650)-723-3392 at any hour or walk in to our center at Munger 1, Apt 137 between the hours of 9 am and midnight to get support.

Eric Martz ’25 M.S. ’25, Dante Danelian ’24 M.S. ’25, Emily Huang ’25 and Julia Donlon ’24 M.S. ’25 are the Bridge’s live-ins.

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