Dr. Earl Sheridan, a professor in the Political Science Department, was recently elected to serve on the City Council. Sheridan discusses his experience, campaign, challenges facing Wilmington over the next few years, and how he hopes his election to City Council will enhance UNCW’s ties to the greater community of Wilmington.

Q: Why did you decide to run for city council?

A: I have been approached about it several times and I was approached again. I have been active in the community for a long time in a variety of ways and I just saw this as another way that I could be active and try to be of service to the community. This is my hometown so I have a special interest in what goes on here and saw this as a way that I could contribute positively to the community.

Q: How many years have you been a professor here at UNCW?

A: I am in my 26th year here at the University?

Q: So then, you have been analyzing and teaching politics for quite a while, how does it feel to be on the other side, so to speak?

A: As I told someone the other day it feels a lot safer on the analytical side, then actually being involved in politics because people have their views about what you are doing and how things ought to go and of course they are not very shy about expressing those views… There is a lot of scrutiny about everything that you say or do, it’s a different world. It is a lot more comfortable on the analytical side of things.

Q: What was the most difficult part of the campaign?

A: It was extremely time consuming. Since I did not have a campaign manager I had to do the job of being candidate and managing my campaign at the same time and that was a lot of things to do. So having to be both manager and candidate, and the time consuming nature of it was difficult.

Q: On the other side, was there any part that you really enjoyed?

A: I enjoyed getting out and meeting all kinds of people and interacting with all kinds of people and hearing what they had to say.

Q: How do you feel about what appears to be the current city council frame of mind regarding growth issues such as rezoning and downtown development?

A: I want the idea of managed growth. That is the idea of having infrastructure in place before we embark on new development. I don’t think that the current council has always followed that viewpoint, they do sometimes, but at other times they have not. And so in my time on council I hope to be a voice for a more managed approach to growth.

Q: In your campaign you cited better communication between city government and residents as one of your objectives, was there any particular area of concern where you feel dialogue needs to be increased?

A: Well, there is a perception among some citizens and even among some people in the city government that decisions are not discussed fully enough in an open and public forum, that key decisions are made behind closed doors and when the public meeting or public discussion comes out it is just a validation of something that has already been decided. I just want to make sure that we have a thorough and open discussion of issues, and decisions are made in a more open arena.

Q: What are some of the important issues other than growth that you see the City of Wilmington facing over the next few years?

A: I guess this is associated with the growth, but the sewage issue is something that is going to have to be dealt with. Sometimes in governance you don’t get to pick the thing that you want to work on, sometimes that thing picks you. With the sewage leaks that have been occurring, those things are going to have to be dealt with… Other things, of course, that I am interested in are economic development issues, particularly economic development issues that touch on pockets of poverty within the city and making sure that those areas are reached… also affordable housing is something that I have taken an interest in. Those are some areas that are of particular interest to me.

Q: You are the first UNCW professor to be elected to city council, correct?

A: I think I am. Yeah.

Q: There has been a lot of talk about increasing UNCW’s ties to the greater community of Wilmington, how important do you feel your election to city council will be in terms of strengthening those ties?

A: I think it will be important, and can be of help. For many years the university has always been out here on the edge of things. Often times the only time that the university is discussed as far as city matters are concerned is when some of the citizens are upset that the students are been partying too much or something of that nature. The university has a lot of expertise out here that might be able to be utilized to help the city deal with a lot of its challenges and issues… I hope to try to foster a closer relationship between the city and the university and I think it will be to the mutual benefit of both institutions.

Q: Recently you were on a panel regarding the political legacy of Hurricane Katrina and you mentioned how it brought racial issues to the forefront again, I was looking at the civic organizations and commissions that you have been involved in such as the Commission on African-American History, The 1898 Foundation Board, and the New Hanover County Branch of the NAACP, how do you think that your involvement on the city council as well as these other organizations will help to bring Wilmington’s racial issues into the public arena?

A: Well I think that race issues are important really all over the country as I said in the panel that you are alluding to. I don’t think that Americans like to talk about it until something like Katrina comes along and sort of forces them to talk about it. Certainly race issues have been important issues in the history of Wilmington, anyone who really knows the history of Wilmington, knows the importance of race as far as things like 1898 and the Wilmington Ten and things of that nature. And so I think that a lot of the boards, commissions and organizations that I have been on give me an opportunity to speak to those issues and to speak to them in a conciliatory fashion, in a fashion I hope that will bring people together in order to try to deal with some of the challenges that are involved with race and racial issues.

Q: What advice do you have regarding students taking an active interest one’s community, in terms of voting and being an active citizen?

A: I am sure that I probably sound like some sort of broken record, but it just think that voting is an important right that we have. There are people in our country that have died, who have given their life not just abroad, but right here in the United States for the right of people to be able to vote. It is each person’s way of being a part of the process and of having his or her voice heard. Something that the process of running for this office has brought home to me anew, not that I had forgotten it, is just the importance and power of democracy-that each person, because you want each person to vote, is important. Sometimes people are aware of the power of their vote, and so I just think a vote is an important thing that we take for granted too much here in the United States. I urge all students and other people as well to take an active role and vote, at the very least, and more than that become involved in some way or another-in a organization that espouses a cause that you believe in or anything of that nature.