The Center for Student Success
The Center for Student Success (CSS), launched in the 2025–26 academic year, serves as a new integrated hub designed to make it easier for students to access support and guidance throughout their time at the College. The Center brings together the offices of the Class Deans, Care Management, and Equity Initiatives into a single, coordinated team. This integrated approach reflects Middlebury’s commitment to supporting students as whole people—academically, personally, and socially—while providing a clearer, more streamlined pathway to the resources and support they need.
Care Reports by Acuity
Care reports are expressions of concern created by staff members supporting students navigating challenges in their time at Middlebury. These challenges might be personal, academic, financial, or about something else entirely. Each care report is reviewed and monitored by experienced staff in the Care Management office and assigned an acuity rating based on an evidence-based rubric. This rubric, along with conversations with the students themselves, helps staff and students work together to determine what supports might be most useful in helping the student return to thriving. Student privacy is of the utmost importance in this process and access to care reports is therefore carefully controlled. Finally, care reports are non-clinical in nature, and different from confidential health records.
Mild Care Reports involve students encountering predictable and normal stressors around which some additional support may be helpful. Examples include having trouble fitting in or adjusting to college, managing financial stress, or academic challenges. These students generally adapt and return to thriving with minimal assistance.
Moderate Care Reports often involve challenges of a similar nature but higher intensity as mild reports. These circumstances are sufficiently difficult that they are impacting other areas of students’ lives such as sleep and general wellness, more significant academic problems, substance use, etc. With referrals to campus resources and supports, these students too generally return to thriving.
Elevated Care Reports involve significant and immediate concerns around a student’s immediate wellbeing, academic success, or safety. These students need considerable professional support to return to thriving, without which their circumstances are unlikely to improve.”
Direct Support
Middlebury’s five Assistant Deans for Student Success often serve as students’ primary point of support, providing holistic case management and guidance to those navigating significant personal, social, and academic challenges.
Leaves and Returns
Each semester students choose to take leaves of absence for a variety of reasons ranging from pursuing an exciting internship or athletic endeavor to attending to family emergencies or their personal health. Simultaneously, other students are returning from their leaves. Both departures for and returns from these leaves are significant transitions and can be stressful experiences. CSS staff frequently work with these students to assist them in navigating these transitions.