ECU’s NAACP elects eBoard members

Blessing Aghimien

Photos of newly elected members of ECU's chapter for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

With a new year comes a new change in leadership, and East Carolina University’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People selected student executives for its organization moving into the 2017-18 school year.

The winners were selected and announced after the elections. Adedayo Adeniyi was selected as next year’s president, while Kennedy Harper and Symone Spaulding were selected to serve as next year’s vice president. Other positions include Octavia McLean for secretary, Shakeila Lane for social chair, Jodi McDougal for parliamentarian and Daysha Ervin for treasurer.

On Tuesday evening in Bate 1010, the NAACP meeting was open for students and faculty to attend. One by one, candidates running for each executive board position gave speeches on their intended goals for the future of the organization. After the speeches were given, paid members of ECU’s NAACP chapter were given the opportunity to vote for the candidates of their choice.

“If there’s no executive board, there’s no NAACP. Without any form of leadership in an organization, it’s bound to fall apart,” said Secretary of ECU’s chapter of the NAACP Octavia McLean, a junior psychology major. “To keep us all one cohesive unit, there needs to be that common line between the eBoard and the NAACP members.”

Continuing to raise his rank on ECU’s NAACP eBoard, fourth-year ECU student Adeniyi is no stranger to ethnic and civil justice organizations on campus. As an avid member of the African Student Organization and serving as the current vice president of ECU’s NAACP chapter, he expressed his “excitement and anticipation” to move up in the organization going forward.

Adeniyi said he has high hopes for the organization going forward and is already making plans of progress that involve member recruitment and collaborations with other organizations on campus, ranging from civil justice organizations such as the Black Student Union to predominately white organizations in an effort to “educate and promote a common agenda.”

Adedayo Adeniyi, ECU NAACP chapter president-elect

“I see a great and bright future for ECU’s NAACP next year. This year was all about pushing it further, and next year we’ll focus on learning from our mistakes and using them as teaching moments. I look forward to events such as the Black Excellence Awards and the Black History Month showcase. We’re growing and becoming bigger and better.”

Positions for the chapter’s executive board were announced via Twitter in a statement from the 2016-17 NAACP President Andria Brown. In the statement, Brown expressed her gratitude for her experience as the organization’s president and her hopes to work with the incoming eBoard members for the 2017-18 school year.

“Although I will no longer be president, I will be working very closely with the newly elected executive board to ensure that this great organization only goes up from here,” said Brown in her Twitter statement. “It has been an absolute honor being president of this organization and it has opened countless doors for me. I will forever be grateful for this blessing.”

One of the largest nationally recognized African-American organizations on campus, ECU’s chapter of the NAACP “has made it a mission to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all people and to eliminate race-based discrimination in society,” according to their mission statement on OrgSync. Responsible for events such as the Black History Month Showcase and the Black Excellence Awards, ECU’s NAACP chapter works with both students and faculty to display the achievements and history of African-Americans on a school-wide scale.