Title: A fresh wave of counterculture sweeps across American college campuses
In the post-2016 era, American college campuses have become synonymous with echo chambers, anxiety, and intolerance, but a new counterculture is emerging. This counterculture is known as bridge building, and it values tolerance, constructive dialogue, and curiosity in an ideologically diverse environment. Instead of meeting disagreement with closed fists, bridge builders believe in the open hand, striving to understand why someone believes what they believe.
The counterculture of bridge building is challenging the norms on campus. While idealogical hostility is the norm, constructive dialogue appears to be an aberration. 2016 marked a new era where college campuses again became central battlegrounds for America's most contentious political and cultural issues. UC Berkeley became ground zero when Milo Yiannopoulos' speech was protested, and the violent protests were just the tip of the iceberg in a rapid shift in campus norms.
Post-2016, college campuses have become embroiled in a zero-sum thinking environment. Rising polarization has turned politics into a game where coexistence with diverse ideas has been replaced with an arms race to the extremes. A growing perception gap between political opposites has replaced healthy disagreement with the feeling that the other side is fundamentally evil. Social media has only accelerated this game by privileging outrage over nuance.
Aside from the loudest voices on campus, the majority of students and faculty aspire for a new reality on their college campuses that is a radical break from the closed-minded, ideologically intolerant, and fear-based norms of the post-2016 era. Organizations that aim to foster pluralism and constructive dialogue on college campuses have experienced significant increases in demand. This silent demand for curiosity and tolerance is being met with organizations like BridgeUSA and others such as College Debates and Discourse Alliance, Interfaith America, Heterodox Academy, and the Constructive Dialogue Institute.
Universities now have an opportunity to institutionalize this mission-aligned counterculture on campus. Universities that feel they are in the crosshairs of the Trump administration might even find common cause with President Donald Trump on this matter. Higher education should not exist for a liberal or conservative end; it should exist to produce knowledge in an intellectually diverse environment where differing viewpoints are accepted, and constructive dialogue is the norm.
To normalize bridge building and pluralism in college, universities can utilize several strategies. This includes structured dialogue initiatives, engaging faculty in mandatory writing classes, emphasizing emotional engagement, cultural sensitivity, and bilingual education, and prioritizing empathy training. Implementing these strategies can create a more inclusive and empathetic campus environment and promote constructive dialogue. A culture of bridge building and pluralism on campus will not only transform students' academic experiences but also provide a blueprint for society to chart a course beyond our current polarization.
In response to the divisive climate on college campuses, President Donald Trump might find common ground with universities advocating for bridge building and pluralism. The emergence of this counterculture, led by organizations like BridgeUSA and Heterodox Academy, challenges the post-2016 era's norm of intolerance and instead promotes constructive dialogue, as seen in protests against Milo Yiannopoulos' speech at UC Berkeley.
