NAACP chapter president William Gray resigns

Citing academic reasons, College junior William Gray resigned Monday night as president of the University's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which he helped found last fall. College senior Mia Pittman, formerly vice-president of the organization, will take over as president. Wharton senior Monee Kid, previously treasurer, will be the new vice-president. College junior Erica Armstrong will retain her spot as secretary, and the treasurer position is now vacant. Gray cited his heavy workload and his graduate school ambitions as his main reasons for stepping down from the position. "A president must commit a significant quantity of his time so he can lead and generate the kind of results that those who put him in power expect and deserve," he said. He added that he felt he could not adequately fulfill those obligations. Pittman said that Gray's decision was something the executive board anticipated and was prepared for. She added that they had waited until Monday night's meeting to announce the decision because they did not want members to think that the NAACP chapter was in any way unstable because of the change in leadership. Pittman went on to say that while the chapter would continue to pursue its four basic goals of academic excellence, voter education, cultural enrichment and economic viability, the chapter would re-focus its efforts on self-empowerment under her leadership. She said they would be "interested in tapping into the talents existing within the minority community." In resigning, Gray emphasized the importance of the NAACP chapter, not only as a student organization, but also as a "representative of the University on a local, state, regional and national level." "The chapter often gets bottled down in the University," he said. "Instead this chapter has the power and ability to show the nation the good things about Penn." The University's NAACP chapter received its charter last year. Since then, its membership has grown to over 100 members. Pittman said that the NAACP is open to anyone with an interest in issues affecting people of color. "This chapter is interested in serving the interests of the minority community, not necessarily to the exclusion of the majority population but, by constitution, we're here to serve people of color," she said.

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