Eric Zuniga, Campus Carrier deputy news editor
Nathanael Mooney, Campus Carrier staff writer
Jim Watkins, professor of English, rhetoric and writing, has become the new co-chair of the Berry Young Democrats with plans to deepen the club’s connection with the Floyd County Democratic Party. He joins Professor of International Relations John Hickman as faculty advisers for the group.
Watkins joins the Young Democrats after having been involved with the local Democratic Party since former President Donald Trump’s election in 2016. He has served on the party’s executive commission and volunteered as a poll watcher in several elections. With the appointment of a new co-chair for the English honors society, which Watkins also advises, he has taken the opportunity to bring his political involvement to campus.
“I’m not a blind follower of the Democratic Party; I see a lot of its weaknesses, but I also feel that its policies are something I happen to believe in,” Watkins said. “Dr. Mia Escott is now going to be the co-adviser for the English honor society, so now I can switch over and do these things.”
In his new role as adviser, Watkins plans on helping students connect with political groups off campus, leaving day-to-day decisions up to club members.
“I definitely want our chapter officers and members to make all of the decisions about the activities of the group and the way they want to direct their resources,” Watkins said. “I’m just there to give them some context and some information and to also encourage where I see productive areas, and also to help to connect them with financial resources on campus and off campus.”
Berry alumna Wendy Davis (87c), a former Rome city commissioner and current member of the Democratic National Committee, has worked with Watkins in the Floyd County Democratic Party. She said that Watkins’ experience in the local party will help him bridge the gap between students and the local community.
“We have confidence that he’s going to be able to connect that group to the resources that are outside that group, because he’s been involved not just with our group but with the broader political community,” Davis said. “He’s going to know people. If he doesn’t know the person to call, he knows the person to call to tell him the person to call.”
Watkins is hoping to revitalize student interest in Young Democrats with more appearances by local candidates, events on policy issues and involvement with local events like the Rome Pride Parade. He also plans on collaborating with other student groups, such as Listen, the Eco Club and the Black Student Association, that share policy interests with the Democratic Party.
“I haven’t been involved long enough to have good ideas about ways to increase membership except for some ideas about programming,” Watkins said. “Those are going to be bringing local candidates in to talk about their candidacy and bringing in other people in to educate students on policy issues they may not be aware of that are in play in this next election.”
The club will also begin canvassing efforts in the lead-up to the election, according to Watkins.
“We’d like for them to think of it as a way to have some parental figures and some older figures that can kind of be like a second family to them,” Watkins said. “Most students on campus have some type of connection to something in the Rome community, whether church or some other kinds of [activities], and this would just be another way that students would have an opportunity to connect with the locals here.”
The Floyd County Democratic Party has recently prioritized building connections with the Young Democrats chapter at Berry. Davis said that college political groups are important because they are best able to reach their peers who may be politically apathetic or disengaged.
“If you have one person in that group who gets excited about registering their classmates, they can do more and produce more registered voters or get people to fill out their forms to get an absentee ballot,” Davis said. “It’s more important to have peers saying why this election is important. They can reach people we can’t reach.”
While youth turnout has increased in recent elections, young voters are still the age group least likely to cast a ballot. In 2020, only 51% of those aged 18 to 24 voted, compared with 76% of those aged 65 to 74, according to the US Census Bureau. Watkins is concerned by what he sees as growing political apathy, caused by social media, among college students.
“What’s really happened [with social media] is just a kind of cacophony where there’s too many voices and too little ability to discern which ones are trustworthy,” Watkins said. “I think all of that results in a kind of cynicism where it’s easy to say both sides were equally bad or it’s easy to say everybody’s corrupt, if you don’t really understand how the processes work.”
The problem of political apathy is compounded at Berry, where the perception of “the Berry bubble” and a polite culture can hinder political debate, according to Watkins. Though students may be turned off by the extreme polarization of today’s politics or feel that their vote is insignificant, Watkins believes there is still potential for cooperation and change, especially at the local level.
“We have a strong conviction in our local party that local politics are just as important as national politics, and change can happen at the ground level,” Watkins said. “There’s a lot more opportunity for nonpartisan cooperation at the city level, less so at the state level and not possible at the national level. For instance, our local seats are nonpartisan seats for county commission and Rome city commission, but we can still find candidates that reflect our values and support them.”
Davis encouraged students to stay informed and get involved with on-campus political groups.
“If it fits in your schedule, try to get involved in this college Democrats group, because that’s the easiest way,” Davis said. “Be a smart consumer of the news, somebody who teaches other people how to be smart consumers of the news. Something looks like [it] can’t possibly be true, well, dig in a second.”
Beyond getting more students involved in local Democratic politics, Watkins’ ultimate hope is to foster students’ knowledge of civic values.
“You’re missing out on your education if you’re not being able to connect what you’re learning to America and the freedoms and the laws that are built to protect those,” Watkins said. “They’re the envy of the rest of the world in many cases.”