Racism casts a long shadow across generations, obscuring the path forward on some of society’s most grave injustices. The Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) initiative, a multi-year effort of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), is facilitating conversations to confront the ongoing impacts of racism, community by community.
AAC&U is partnering with colleges and universities that recognize that their success is intertwined with that of their surrounding neighborhoods to advance the TRHT initiative through locally-established Campus Centers. These centers promote racial healing and address inequities by emphasizing grassroots, people-centered activities and policies to improve understanding and cooperation across the broad spectrum of American experiences.
Launched in 2016 by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation with 176 leaders from 144 organizations, the TRHT Implementation Guidebook outlined a model for healing across races, ages, and sectors. The first 14 Campus Centers brought the framework to life in 2017, with more than 70 now operational nationwide, and additional locations on the horizon.
Lynn Pasquerella, PhD, president of AAC&U, and Mary Ann Villarreal, PhD, vice president of diversity, equity, and student success at AAC&U, are leading the effort.
“The goal of TRHT is to jettison a belief in a hierarchy of human value,” says Pasquerella. “We ask people to engage in narrative change that tells a fuller, richer, more complete story of our communities and of our nation.”
Changing that narrative isn’t just about shifting perspectives. With more than $32 million invested in planning, implementation, and sustainability, the Kellogg Foundation fuses the work into the fiber of each campus, assessing their respective historical, social, and economic factors and developing customized projects and partnerships to mitigate issues and advance racial healing locally.
“The work varies by campus in terms of how they see their relationship to their communities.” Villareal says.
The University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, for example, backed indigenous opposition to building an observatory on sacred land. The Citadel researches the histories of racially minoritized members through archival records. Brown University engages Black and Muslim associates to learn how to cultivate a greater sense of belonging both on and off campus.
Rutgers University Newark took a decentralized approach to its TRHT Campus Center, partnering with the Newark Public Library (NPL) and utilizing its multiple locations to encourage citywide discussions on racism, sexism, and inequality. This interactive, interregional strategy has proven to be just as impactful as traditional, physical centers.
“My favorite story is Rutgers Newark,” says Pasquerella. “Because they have their center in the public library… they had middle schoolers [that] went to the local and state legislators, petitioned them, and got the legislators to change their minds using the principles of TRHT, and said, ‘We learned this through this program, and we know that this is important to our community.’”
Institutions determine their own most effective methods by developing an action plan with the TRHT Implementation Guidebook and then registering for the TRHT Institute, a virtual learning summit. At the institute, a seasoned mentor helps adapt the action plan to both the TRHT methodology and the school’s broader vision. They identify key stakeholders and consider factors such as student success and campus climate, with many continuing their mentorship through the school’s ongoing work.
“It is integrated into the culture,” says Villareal. “It’s not about identifying or taking sides in any particular moment, but really recognizing what it is your campus needs from you … We engage in human identification and empathetic imagination across differences.”
Campus Centers preserve a meaningful connection between institutional achievement and the vitality of nearby communities, emphasizing racial equity and inclusion. Strong local alliances are vital, and campus-wide cohesion is fundamentally important.
“There has to be a commitment from the top down,” says Pasquerella. “It has to be a part of the culture because this work isn’t relegated to one office. It has to be at the forefront of public discussion and private debate every single day. It has to be in the very fabric of the institution.”
