Nightline Lends Ear to Students' Troubles by Phone

As students grieve over the weekend’s tragedy, Nightline, a crisis hotline, offers a friendly outlet for those seeking help.

Staff members at the student-run organization answer phone calls between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. They listen to callers and refer them to appropriate on-campus resources. Nightline prides itself on offering a safe ear to Columbia students, though some find it ineffective.

Nightline was initially founded in the ’80s as a women’s peer health group but soon became a campus-wide hotline. The counselors are trained to listen to problems that span relationships, roommate problems, academic stress, sexuality, depression, and drug abuse.

“We try not to be so directive,” Elisheva Bellin, BC ’10 and co-director of Nightline said.

The organization stresses that callers speak to peers, not trained therapists. The student counselors do not attempt to solve the problems of their callers or give straightforward advice, but they do try to help them devise their own solutions and refer them to other resources.
The hotline goes to great lengths to preserve confidentiality. Its phones do not have caller ID, and callers are not asked to reveal their identities, ensuring that their problems will remain private. Staff members are also forbidden to identify themselves by name. This prevents callers and counselors from having to confront one another should they meet in person.

While this anonymity is vital to the line’s goals, it has been a cause of confusion for at least one student. In September, a student who wished to remain anonymous faced bouts of depression. One night, when her friends could not calm her down, they had her call Nightline. “About halfway through my phone call, the line cut out, and I didn’t realize it for a little bit, and I was still talking,” she said. “There was never any effort to get in touch with me. I didn’t find it very helpful.” Nightline would have been unable to call back because they lacked caller ID.

Nighline co-directors Bellin and Rachel Simonson, BC ’10, found that the volume of calls rises and falls with campus and community events. One of the busiest nights for the organization is during Take Back the Night, an April campaign against sexual violence, when the lines are kept open until 5 a.m. The hotline also tends to receive more callers at the beginning of the school year and during midterms and finals, as these are relatively stressful times. They have even received calls from Columbia students spooked by the economic downturn.

Nightline is currently accepting applications for new counselors, who will begin training this week. Counselors train for an entire semester, attending sessions that meet for three hours each week. Mental health professionals and campus service staff give lectures on pressing issues in their fields. Sessions conclude with practice calls.

“We would love for more people to not be afraid to use us. I think there’s a stigma associated with calling a help line, just like there are stigmas associated with getting help from counseling,” Bellin said.
Indeed, some students seemed less than enthusiastic about the hotline.
“Anyone who is trying to call a hotline would have to have some kind of problem that is so personal, so based on the situation that it would be almost impossible for another person to adequately respond to that problem because they would never have the ability to understand you personally,” Gavin Newton-Tanzer, CC ’12, said.

Susan Thomas, CC ’12, agreed. “I would call a hot line if I was really desperate,” she said. “But it would be a last resort. It’s really impersonal.”

According to Bellin, Nightline’s goal is not to fix problems but to give students a place to talk about their emotions without the fear that they will be judged.

“We’re different because we are just here to hear,” she said.

Nightline is available for students at any Columbia-affiliated school. It can be reached at 212-854-7777 from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. every night.