FEATURE: Looking back on 30 years of ‘The Bridge’ 

FEATURE: Looking back on 30 years of ‘The Bridge’ 

By Kaily Olivo
Editor-in-chief
Published Thursday March 26, 2026

“The Bridge” made its debut in March 1996 at Texas A&M International University, and continues to live on, reaching a 30-year milestone this March 2026.

In recognition of some of the top stories across the past 30 years, “The Bridge” would like to go back to the first two stories on the front page of the March 1996 issue: “Women’s studies program to be inaugurated at TAMIU,” by one of the first Bridge reporters, Sarah Collins, and “Hopefuls to visit campus as search for president continues,” by 1996 Editor-in-chief Carlos A. Guardiola.

Collins’ story kicked off Bridge reporting with the introduction of a women’s studies program, an upper-division course and included a celebration of Women’s History Month.

Jumping to the top story of the February 1997 issue, “All about campus housing” reports on the University Village’s first appearance as TAMIU joined the sector of universities offering on-campus housing.

Switching up to localized national news, the February 2003 issue reflected on the death of the space shuttle Columbia crew in Bridge Staff Writer Danny Garza’s article, “TAMIU reacts to the loss of the space shuttle.”

And one of the top stories in February 2024, “New cooperative Ph.D. program in Hispanic studies” marked TAMIU’s first doctorate in Hispanic studies in the state.

“The Bridge” has shared stories that still leave an impact, such as “Funding problems an issue for the Planetarium” reported in the October 2005 issue has recently been addressed through the newly remodeled and reopened Lamar Bruni Vergara Planetarium, included in this March 2026 issue. The Planetarium was closed for about nine months for a major renovation.

Representation in additions, changes and campus news at TAMIU has grown through a long cycle that shows TAMIU’s progressive nature.

From Radcliffe Killam’s passing to “Grammy winner jams out with students” to TAMIU crowning its first all-female Royals to TAMIU naming its first female police chief, Cordelia Perez. Featuring former President Pablo Arenaz’s debut as TAMIU’s sixth president in the May 2017 issue up to his passing, “TAMIU mourns loss of president” by former Assistant Editor Dora Guerrero in the October issue of 2024.

Later, “The Bridge” reported on TAMIU’s seventh leader, President Christoper Maynard, in “TAMIU welcomes new president” in October 2025 by current Editor-in-chief Kaily Olivo.

Hard news stories recognized tough subjects like “Music students react to arrest of former mariachi professor” by former Editor-in-chief Marissa Contreras and an online exclusive “Bridge exclusive: Cowboy tells his side of story” by Olivo, which featured TAMIU students speaking about alleged harassment.

Leaving off, the most recent top story from the February 2026 issue, “TAMIU welcomes Graduate School program in engineering,” also by Olivo.

“The Bridge” celebrates 30 years of serving TAMIU’s students, faculty, staff and administrators through its diverse coverage of the campus community. Over that course of time, the staff also developed and transformed its flag design on the front page numerous times.

The staff’s mission statement, from the website’s masthead: “To serve our readers (the students, faculty, staff and administration of Texas A&M International University) to the best of our ability through ethical and accurate written and visual communication across numerous platforms by providing a variety of news coverage of campus events and issues, as well as features and sports coverage, plus opinion/editorial articles. This is an academic organization and, as such, lends itself to real-world practical experience for our student staff so they can learn the techniques, skills, creativity, ethics, laws and impacts that affect journalism and journalists—thus preparing them for a possible career in news media.”