Faculty/Staff Detail

Seth N. Asumah, Africana Studies and Political Science departments, recently was nominated and approved by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) New York State Conference as a founding chapter faculty advisor for the newly formed SUNY Cortland NAACP. Founding President Gia Greenidge, a psychology major, and 28 SUNY Cortland students worked with Asumah through the rigorous process of establishing the SUNY Cortland branch of the NAACP. SUNY Cortland’s Student Government Association (SGA) approved the SUNY Cortland NAACP Club on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018.

The NAACP, the oldest and largest civil rights organization, was established in New York on Feb. 12, 1909 by black and white U.S. citizens who were committed to civil rights and social justice. Among the founders were W.E.B. Dubois, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villiard, William English Walling and Ida Wells-Barnett. In 1936, the Youth and College Division of the NAACP was created by student activists. There are 2,200 NAACP affiliates in the United States, Japan and Germany.

The mission of the NAACP is to “ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality” of minoritized groups and to fight for civil rights, social justice and inclusion. SUNY Cortland joins five other SUNY campuses with NAACP branches— the University at Albany, Binghamton University, the University at Buffalo, SUNY Stony Brook and Buffalo State University.