Students working to bring NAACP chapter to EU

Students announced at the Michelle Duster lecture the reinstatement of an NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) chapter at Elmhurst University on Feb. 16.

EU senior, Norbaya Durr, spoke to the crowd in attendance, asking students interested to write down their name and email on a slip of paper to garner interest in building the group up to establish it on campus. 

Durr and Vanessa Payne are the two students fronting the group with Chaplain Scott Matheny as the adviser. 

“Early during Fall 2021 semester, Dr. Ron [Wiginton] and Dr. [Mary Kay] Mulvaney approached me to talk about what faculty members have been contributing to the NAACP, but that it has mostly been a faculty-engaged project,” said Durr in an email interview. “They felt there was a need for the NAACP at EU to be more inclusive and student-led.” 

One of the reasons Durr feels the NAACP should be on campus as a means to develop healing amongst marginalized groups. 

“I believe developing an NAACP chapter will help protect students, encourage healing between different racial and ethnic groups, [and] pay homage to the power the civil rights movement have impacted the United States,” said Durr. 

Payne views the implementation of an NAACP chapter as a means to organize and educate the campus community by assessing their needs. 

“I think our goal currently is to assess what the student community thinks is needed from an NAACP chapter through a survey we are working on,” said Payne. “Additionally, I think some of our goals would be education and outreach.”

“We want to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race by developing a new generation of civil rights and community leaders,” states the NAACP on their website. 

In accordance with their goals, Durr wants “to advance people of color economically, socially, and culturally harmoniously with all people, and that understand[ing] history and being at the forefront of writing the future narrative is a must.” 

While the chapter has not yet been founded, Durr and Payne are in the developmental stages on campus, with hopes of becoming nationally recognized by the NAACP. 

In order to become a recognized organization on campus, four students are required to become a recognized organization and 25 students are needed to become a national chapter.