Bridge U of A Heterdox

Introduction:

Thank you Marius and to the UA Heterodox chapter for the invitation to speak about the formation of our UA Bridge Chapter.

Our organization depends on the University maintaining a campus culture of free speech and open dialogue, and we want to encourage such a culture to flourish more.

Madison: Federalist 10

Writing on the ability of the republican form of government proposed in the Constitution to check factions from forming whereby a majority or a minority would use the powers of government to deprive other citizens of their rights and property:

“By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community. There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction, the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.”

Madison, understanding human nature, envisioned a civil society wherein people would have opposing views on almost everything.  He wrote:  “A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.”

Bridge U of A Begins

Fall 2022 and Kate Tandy

The initial interest in starting a chapter came because Bridge made an Instagram account and just happened to follow me, I loved the mission and sent them a DM expressing interest, we set up a call and that’s basically how I became President! I recruited Maddie and Lily to the team, and then we had a rough time getting registered but as soon as we started hosting we saw a lot of success. I think that the student interest was there straight away (our first event had 30 attendees), but it certainly increased during the 24 election season. We saw higher attendance at election related discussions, which is to be expected. I think that overall, the interest in our organization shows that campus could be better at facilitating open dialogue and making students feel comfortable sharing their opinions openly.

We received our official RSO registration approval in March 2024, and since then, through the efforts of our original executive board and the outreach team they put together, we have an official membership, according to HogSync, of 77, and we continue to see student interest during our outreach and campus tabling events.

Bridge Goal

“The goal of BridgeUSA is not to change minds or create centrists but to encourage students to engage differing beliefs, experiences, and perspectives.  What unites us is not agreement on policies but a shared mindset.” 

“BridgeUSA strongly believes in our ability to hold strong beliefs while being able to express them in a constructive manner.”

One of the core principles is to “host open and honest discussions.” 

Bridge Challenges

We face challenges:  non-election cycle attendance for meetings; ensuring our organization remains committed to its principles rather than becoming another partisan or one-sided organization. 

Kaitlyn Billera: will now speak for just a few minutes on the impact Bridge has made.