BridgeColumbia’s Rise and the Future of Free Speech

If you walk into Earl Hall—Columbia’s center for religious life—descend the flight of stairs on the right, take a left at the end of the basement’s slender, sterile-lit hallway, and duck into a cozy room consisting of two couches and a table, you will have just reached the first-ever general body meeting of BridgeColumbia in September 2024. The club, where I serve as director of outreach, is the University’s chapter of BridgeUSA, a nationwide organization with chapters at 125 schools and whose mission is to promote “viewpoint diversity, responsible discourse, and a solution-oriented political culture” on America’s college campuses.

BridgeColumbia’s humble beginnings stand in stark contrast to its accomplishment just earlier this August: In Philadelphia, a crew of its board members arrived at the BridgeUSA National Summit as nominees for the organization’s “Chapter of the Year” award.

Accomplishing such a feat in anti-polarization work, at a campus as polarized as Columbia’s, is no easy task. “Our first-ever meeting was in literally the only room we could find,” explained chapter president Harvey Pennington GS/JTS ‘27. “It was a discussion on the southern border. We made each board member bring a friend, but in the end, only about six people showed up, and half of them were doing homework the whole time.”