WASHINGTON DC (January 30, 2024) — The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) announced today partnerships with four new Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the following host institutions:
- Antioch University
- Bard College
- Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®)
- Elizabethtown College
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. With the shared goal of preparing 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 campus 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.
“We’re thrilled to partner with these four new host institutions,” said AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella, “and we look forward to supporting their efforts to promote racial equity and healing on their campuses and in their communities.”
Beginning in 2017 with an inaugural cohort of centers at ten AAC&U member institutions, the TRHT Campus Centers effort has grown into a dynamic and diverse network of host institutions, including community colleges, liberal-arts colleges, HBCUs, minority-serving institutions, faith-based institutions, and large research universities. The new centers announced today bring the total number of TRHT partner institutions to seventy-one.
“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 Tia McNair, AAC&U Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the TRHT Campus Centers.
At the annual AAC&U Institute on Truth, Racial Healing, and 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 of what their campuses and communities will look, feel, and be like when there is no longer a false belief in a hierarchy of human value. The TRHT Institute is central to building the capacity of new and existing centers to further the vision of the national TRHT movement. AAC&U is currently accepting applications for the 2024 institute, which will be held virtually on June 25–28.
About AAC&U
The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is a global membership organization dedicated to advancing the democratic purposes of higher education by promoting equity, innovation, and excellence in liberal education. Through our programs and events, publications and research, and public advocacy and campus-based projects, AAC&U serves as a catalyst and facilitator for innovations that improve educational quality and equity and that support the success of all students. In addition to accredited public and private, two-year and four-year colleges and universities and state higher-education systems and agencies throughout the United States, our membership includes degree-granting higher-education institutions in more than twenty-five countries as well as other organizations and individuals. To learn more, visit aacu.org.
