The Young Democratic Socialists club is an organization aiming to get students involved in politics by advocating for social justice. 

Senior Donavon Millington, co-chair of YDS, said the club’s mission is to educate and organize students to create change.

“We believe this movement’s goals are fundamentally impossible under capitalism,” he said. “We seek to enact social change that extends democracy into all aspects of life. As such, our vision of socialism is profoundly democratic, feminist and anti-racist.”

Senior Alex Barnett, co-chair of YDS, said this semester, the club’s goal is to replace the Starbucks in the Torreyson Library.

“We want that to be replaced with something like maybe another T.H.I.N.K. on campus or maybe Round Mountain,” Barnett said. “Essentially, we don’t think that we ought to be supporting a company that is actively participating in union-busting as well as supporting the genocide happening in Palestine.”

Barnet said the first step for getting rid of Starbucks is a petition.

“Petitions never do anything in and of themselves. Petitions are to get the ball rolling,” he said. “We want to reach out to our fellow students on campus and create an actual movement against Starbucks being on our campus.”

Millington said he joined YDS because he wanted to have a voice — he suggested other students do the same. 

“I realized that if I wanted to not feel powerless I had to start small,” Millington said. “YDS gave me the chance to contribute in any small way that we could, given our resources and location in an overwhelmingly conservative area and state, to move toward progressive and socialist policies.”

He said when it comes to advocating, it’s better to start small than to do nothing at all.

“Getting enough donations to allow a few dozen women to receive necessary reproductive healthcare or to feed a few hundred refugees in Palestine means a world of difference to those people and requires just being active and caring,” Millington said. “Additionally, the more members we have, the less able we can be ignored. We can gather more donations for progressive causes. We can effectively protest against sexist, homophobic, racist and transphobic policies and the officials that push them.”

Barnett said organizations like YDS are especially important on the local level.

“I would say that if you are looking to join an organization that is actually going to fight back against people in power in Conway, then YDS is the organization for you,” he said. “We have a large amount of people in Conway who have very progressive beliefs, and yet none of our policies seem to reflect that.”

Barnett started YDS during his junior year after the termination of the African and African-American Studies major. 

“During all of that, I noticed that there was no organization on campus that could really speak to the demands of the student body,” he said. “The very fact that they were canceling the African-American Studies program, the only African-American Studies program in the state, demonstrates that this campus is not very concerned about diversity and not very concerned about teaching students about pressing issues.”

Millington said YDS hopes to host multiple events this semester. 

“One of which is to co-host a debate between our club, the Young Democrats, and the Young Republicans here on campus,” Millington said. “Another event we plan on is hosting a speaker from the Arkansas Abortion Support Network to talk about the reproductive health options available in and near Arkansas after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and subsequent abortion bans across the country. Potentially, we might host an end-of-the-year fundraiser but the details of that are still in the works.”

The YDS club meets Tuesdays at 5 p.m. in Irby 307.

More information about the club can be found on Instagram, @uca_youngdemocraticsocialists.