Nathanael Mooney, Campus Carrier staff writer
Berry’s chapter of Young Democrats of America is fully active as another year begins and the election closes in. Starting this year, Professor of English Jim Watkins is serving as co-advisor for Young Democrats alongside Professor of International Affairs John Hickman. Watkins has experience working directly with the Floyd County Democratic Party and hopes to get club members politically involved.
One of the club’s biggest goals for the semester is to get as many people registered to vote as possible. Junior Sam Russell is currently serving as treasurer and thinks being an active voter is important no matter the party affiliation.
“We might be labeled as the Democratic Party, but our main goal is to educate about issues, obviously from a slightly Democratic standpoint, [and] to have all the information out on the table and to educate students who don’t know a lot about politics,” Russell said.
This sentiment was shared by sophomore Max McClain, who is currently serving as the club’s secretary.
“We are here to educate; we want people to get involved no matter what,” McClain said.
The Young Democrats have planned to host multiple events this semester to get students involved in politics, however, the club is facing some issues when it comes to hosting these events. There is currently no College Republicans chapter at Berry. This lack of representation has caused the Office of Student Involvement (OSI) to express concern about the events being seen as party affiliated. Since there would be no counterpart to Young Democrats at these events, the events could be seen as party-affiliated and thus, Berry could stop the event from happening.
“We are trying to solve that problem and working with the people in [OSI] to figure out how we can help students learn more about the elections, the positions the candidates are taking and their rights to vote when it is just us, a Democratic group, trying to promote those ideas,” Watkins said.
According to the club’s officers, the types of events that the club wishes to host would include panels, debates, canvassing and volunteering. Despite the issues, the club has been able to secure some events, such as a watch party of the presidential debate Tuesday night and a voter registration tabling event on Sep. 17.
At the watch party, the club provided snacks and filled out bingo cards. The cards included items like “Harris laughs,” “Random celebrity mentioned” and “Economy discussion.”
The tabling event will take place outside of Krannert and will guide students on how to register to vote. There are future events that the club has planned but have yet to confirm a date. One of these events is a carpooling event to bring students to the polls.
“I was thinking about offering carpools for people who don’t want to go out themselves or who don’t own a car,” McClain said.
The Young Democrats are prepared to stay busy regardless of the election outcome. According to Russell, the officers will be getting much more involved with the college caucuses.
“They are also talking about, specifically this past convention, more rural outreach,” Russell said. “Since we are a part of the rural caucus, we will be doing a lot more work with them.”
The club’s meetings are on Sundays at 6 p.m. and are open to everyone regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum.
“While we certainly have left-leaning views, that doesn’t mean someone who is conservative, centrist or right-leaning can’t come to our meetings and have an open discussion,” Russell said. “We are interested in the marketplace of ideas.”