GW Students Work to Bridge Political Divides

When Nivriti Agaram and Arianna Campi were first-year students at the George Washington University during the fall of 2022, they attended a bipartisan conversationon gun control between Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), held in the Jack Morton Auditorium.

They came away from that night inspired to see a Democrat and Republican at the national level finding common ground in figuring out how to address a polarizing political issue. Soon afterward, they joined BridgeGW, a student organization part of a larger, multi-partisan nonprofit intent on fostering constructive political discussion and empathetic action.

Now, they are co-presidents of the organization and frequently hold dialogues for students to engage with one another through responsible discourse. They hold events every two weeks and have recently discussed pressing issues such as free speech, politicized violence, education, Ukraine-U.S. relations and the death penalty. All the discussions, Agaram said, are centered around a specific topic that encourages attendees to put cause above agenda.

"One thing we've experimented with is encouraging participants to put themselves in the shoes of the other side," said Agaram, a political science and finance major. "Especially on emotional topics, we try to end with a prompt like: 'What's an idea or argument from the other side that you sympathize with, understand or want to address?' That kind of reflection makes the discussions more meaningful."

Finding moments to reach across the aisle seems harder to come by-illustrated by the significance the BridgeGW co-presidents felt about a bipartisan forum-in a hyper-polarized political atmosphere aided by online anonymity.

BridgeGW is not alone in its dedication to forging dialogue and relationships across the political aisle.

The Division for Student Affairsfacilitates "Listening Circles," where students and community members come to share thoughts and experiences in a supportive, structured environment, often facilitated by a trained leader. These sessions are held by various departments and student groups at GW to foster connection and community, allowing participants to express themselves and listen to others' perspectives on shared experiences or world events. In the past, that has included conversations on post-electiondialogue and career planning amid government upheaval.

GW also engages with the Constructive Dialogue Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit that partners with universities to help foster cultures of open inquiry and constructive dialogue. GW has hosted events like "Teaching Day" that on Sept. 30. featured interactive workshops and conversations on constructive dialogue, led by faculty trained by the institute.

On Sept. 11, College Republicans, College Democrats and Young Americans for Freedom placed flags in Kogan Plaza to honor and remember the victims of 9/11, including nine GW alumni. Last month, leaders of College Democrats also attended a vigil hosted by College Republicans for assassinated conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.

Student leaders who participated in a Listening Circle and the vigil after the death shared some of their thoughts of being a part of a democratic community.

"Having the ability to sit down and have a conversation respectfully is something honorable and important to maintain in this day and age," said Student Government Association President Ethan Lynne and Vice President Liz Stoddard.

"Democracy can only thrive when disagreements are addressed through peaceful dialogue and respect for one another," the executive board of GW College Democrats said in a statement.

"I am honored to work with the College Republicans, Democrats and our administration in the pursuit of this noble endeavor," said Jipson Yang, chair of GW Young Americans for Freedom. "Only through cooperation across the aisle can we restore a community built on reason and respect."

"In a free society, the right to speak and disagree peacefully must always be protected," GW College Republicans said in a statement. "While we may differ in our political views, violence is never the answer and must not be tolerated."

Still, as one GW professor points out, the challenge of reducing polarization goes far beyond campus. Defusing partisan animosity is a Herculean task, noted Derek Holliday, assistant professor of political science at the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. In a recent study in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," Holliday and his co-authors evaluated depolarization efforts largely spearheaded by academics, nonprofits and grassroot groups. Their results were dispiriting: The effects were small, they decayed rapidly, and they didn't improve with repeated exposure. Depolarization, he said, at an individual level is hard to begin with, and scaling it up to millions of Americans becomes a real challenge.

On the large scale, Holliday said political elites play an outsized role in fomenting and potentially decreasing political tensions. His study suggests building on their influence with top-down solutions-whether the first steps come from the White House, Congress or even student leaders, as GW students across political divides have recently displayed.

"If, say, the young Democrats and the young Republicans who might act as visible signals of depolarization on campus consistently interact with each other in a positive way and do so towards a common goal, there might be some effect," he said. "Even if it's small, interaction should be positive for positivity's sake."

For her part, BridgeGW's Campi, a senior Middle East studies major and public policy minor, believes it becomes even more important for students to encourage respectful debate, even if they don't see it modeled at the national level.

She said that constructive dialogue is an important tool in every profession and building that toolkit at this age is crucial to counter division and polarization.

"When you have these conversations, even if you walk away still disagreeing, that's OK," Campi said. "The most important thing is that you sat down and had the conversation. Because what we're seeing more and more is that people aren't even willing to do that. If you start building that habit in college, you're laying the groundwork."