Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation™ (TRHT) Campus Climate Assessment Toolkit

AAC&U is developing a Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation™ (TRHT)-Focused Campus Climate Assessment Toolkit. Using lessons learned from AAC&U’s work with TRHT Campus Centers and guided by the TRHT Framework developed by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the toolkit will help institutions and practitioners examine systems, policies, programs, services, and practices that perpetuate disparities and inequities through a false belief in the hierarchy of human value. This includes assessing the institution’s historical and implicit racial narratives, opportunities for expanding relationship building, and racial healing among students, faculty, staff, and other constituents.

The new toolkit will be designed to complement existing campus climate surveys and to promote deeper understanding of institutional environments and of lived experiences of students, faculty, staff, and communities. Institutions will be able to use the toolkit to identify actionable strategies and practices for examining and transforming harmful racial narratives and building relationships that nurture diversity and equity. The development of the TRHT-Focused Campus Climate Assessment Toolkit is supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

AAC&U will work with a team of national evaluators from TriWest Group along with core teams from nineteen institutions. The participants reflect a diversity of perspectives and institutional characteristics, such as type, designation, and geographic location. The core teams are composed of members from key campus stakeholder groups, including students, faculty, and staff. These teams will serve as thought partners in the toolkit development process by providing their insight and feedback on the toolkit's relevance, content, and structure.