The College of William and Mary’s new pedestrian bridge is not the only structure closing gaps on campus. Bridge William and Mary, a new student organization, has recently emerged with a goal of bridging the gap between ideological differences among students.
In the wake of heightened political polarization in the United States and across college campuses, a team of passionate undergraduate students collaborated to charter a chapter of Bridge at the College. Bridge William and Mary hopes to serve as a productive and welcoming outlet for students who wish to engage across divides. It is a place where members strive to value arguments for their merits rather than judging others for their character.
“It’s a national organization. Their mission is basically to get young people to have empathetic and productive conversations, and their further aim is so that there’s young leaders in American democracy who can fix what’s going on right now and be able to have those conversations,” Bridge president Ylva Oppold ’26 said.
While some might assume that an organization of this nature mirrors existing political or debate clubs on campus, vice president of marketing Nicole Hagopian ’26 defined what sets Bridge apart from typical political organizations.
“We have four rules for every conversation that happens and it is: listen to listen rather than to respond, address the statement not the person, don’t interrupt or have side conversations and don’t generalize,” Hagopian said.
With a space where norms of discussion are strongly enforced, the club aims to provide a more comfortable setting for students to listen and learn about current political debates in a safe, respectful manner.
Vice president of events Emma Fix ’26 was motivated to become involved in the organization after reading works that explored polarization more deeply.
“I read ‘The Identity Trap’ by Yasha Monk, which is about political extremism on both sides and how political polarization drives that, and then also ‘The Coddling of the American Mind,’” Fix said. “I feel like most people have the almost nostalgia for Mitt Romney and Obama and other Republicans, where politicians are able to have peaceful debates and they’d stick to talking about policy rather than going at each other personally.”
Executive board members additionally expressed the ways in which this organization can uniquely benefit students at the College through serving as a medium of conflict moderation in the political sphere on campus.
“There’s not really any other club that is as bipartisan as we are, where we are holding space to have these conversations. And I think the key distinction is like we’re not a debate club and we’re also not affiliated with a political party,” Fix said.
As for what future events might look like, the club will establish weekly meeting times for large discussions on a broad range of political topics. Additionally, executive members hope to collaborate with other campus organizations.
“So Bridge, during our training, showed us what other schools have done. We’re going to take inspiration from that, probably,” Oppold said. “One of the chapters did a debate between Young Democrats and College Republicans, and the Bridge exec moderated that.”
Exec members also strive to host more lighthearted events to juxtapose the more formal discussions.
“There’s also ‘Pie a Politician,’ which is more of a fundraising thing where you put on whatever face of a politician and people can pie you,” Oppold said.
Ultimately, members are very eager to see new faces at meetings and want to encourage all who are interested to consider joining.
“Come to our meetings even if you don’t want to contribute to the conversation just yet. Just listen and see how things work, and we want to hear everyone. This is supposed to be a safe place,” Hagopian said.
Executive board members emphasized the importance of understanding and collaboration in creating a better future on campus and beyond.
“We can only work towards better solutions for everyone if we can find common ground because, fundamentally, everybody wants each other to have a good life, and we can’t really do that if we are constantly biting each other’s throats over our stances on everything,” Fix said. “Empathy is definitely needed. I think if people talk to each other and listen to each other they would see that they share a lot of the same values.”
Correction (10/27/2025): This article was updated by the Standards & Practices Editor to correct a misquote.
