The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has announced partnerships with four new Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers.
TRHT Campus Centers play a vital role in the national TRHT effort to address historical and contemporary effects of racial inequities by building sustainable capacity to promote deep, transformational change. Antioch University, Bard College, Cuyahoga Community College, and Elizabethtown College will host the newest centers, bringing the total of TRHT partner institutions to 71.
The campus centers seek to prepare the next generation of leaders and thinkers to build equitable and just communities by dismantling the false belief in a hierarchy of human value. Each center uses the TRHT framework to implement its own visionary action plan for creating new narratives about race, bias, and difference in their communities and promoting racial healing and relationship building through campus-community engagement.
TRHT Campus Centers comprise community colleges, liberal arts colleges, HBCUs, minority-serving institutions, faith-based institutions, and large research universities. At the annual AAC&U Institute on Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Centers, teams from institutions interested in hosting TRHT Campus Centers and teams from existing host institutions work with the guidance of mentors to develop action plans that support their visions to promote racial equity and healing on their campuses and in their communities.
“As we continue to expand our partnerships with higher education institutions and their local communities, it is imperative that we reclaim the narrative around why these efforts are crucial for promoting our interconnectedness, common humanity, and shared responsibility to achieve the transformation we all seek where there is no longer a false belief in a hierarchy of human value,” said Dr. Tia McNair, AAC&U’s vice president for diversity, equity, and student success and the TRHT Campus Centers executive director.
AAC&U is accepting applications for the 2024 institute, held virtually June 25-28.