BridgeUSA is an organization meant to promote civil political discourse among college students from across the ideological spectrum. The organization has 30 chapters at universities across the country, including Notre Dame, Arizona State University, UC Berkeley and most recently, LSU.
Political science and economics sophomore Rehm Maham decided to start a chapter at LSU after attending an Honors College event where professors from Arizona State spoke about the importance of civility in political discourse.
“That idea that civility is important resonated with me,” Maham said.
The professors mentioned their BridgeUSA chapter at Arizona State and Maham spoke to LSU Honors College Dean Jonathan Earle about starting a chapter at LSU.
“In our national political discourse, civility is not the norm,” Maham said. “Anyone who watched the first presidential debate can recognize that. I don’t think it’s good for our politics, much less our country, and BridgeUSA agrees and is actively working to change that.”
Earle, the faculty sponsor for LSU’s BridgeUSA chapter, agreed.
“I love that BridgeUSA is trying to make our college campuses a focal point for that kind of engagement,” Earle said. “I think it’s a false perception that college campuses are places of incivility and political silencing.”
Earle said there are faculty members and administrators at every college he has worked at who want to create space on campus for all views to be heard.
That kind of space has not been provided by other student political organizations on LSU’s campus, according to political science junior Nate Wiggins.
“Bridge is not an echo chamber,” Wiggins said. “We take in all kinds of people. We take in all people who are interested in hearing out the other side.”
Wiggins is the chapter’s director of programming and is a member of LSU College Democrats. He said BridgeUSA allowed him to strengthen his viewpoints.
“In an echo chamber, you don’t have to be on your feet,” Wiggins said. “If you’re talking about issues with people who don’t agree with you, it forces you to better articulate yourself.”
Maham said a goal of BridgeUSA is to help people become better advocates for the positions they hold.
“I think when you go and engage productively with people, you refine the way that you advocate for your own ideas and you better understand why you believe them,” Maham said.
Maham said a part of why today’s political environment is polarized is because many people don’t engage with those they disagree with, which is the first step in having a productive discussion about politics.
Once people do engage with one another, it can quickly devolve into a screaming match where each person is simply trying to “own the other person,” Maham said.
“We are not a debate club,” Maham said. “We’re trying to go a step beyond the divisive rhetoric that happens in our political conversations here in the United States and actually talk about policies people want to see implemented — not just repeat catchphrases.”
Maham said LSU’s chapter is waiting until next semester to start holding events and increasing its presence around campus.
He said this decision was made partially because of COVID-19 limitations and also because having civil political discussions will be difficult until after the election.
Some of the events the organization plans to hold include having policymakers and well-researched individuals speak about current political issues, hosting discussions between other political organizations on campus and setting up a table in Free Speech Alley.
The group, which is currently made up of eight students, meets on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. to discuss relevant political topics.
“Looking forward to the next semester, we want to start growing as an organization and do more public events and hopefully be a really exciting group on campus,” Maham said.