Press Release

Seventy-Five Institutions Selected to Participate in AAC&U Institute on Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Centers

Washington, DC—The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) announced today the seventy-five higher education institutions selected to participate in the 2022 Institute on Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers. Thirty-five of the participating institutions serve as host sites for existing TRHT Campus Centers; an additional forty institutions will send teams to learn more about the TRHT framework and facilitating Racial Healing Circles and to explore their interest in hosting new campus centers. The Institute will be held virtually from June 21 to 24.

“AAC&U is thrilled to partner with colleges and universities across the country to advance the TRHT effort within US higher education,” said AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella. “We look forward to learning with and from the participants in the 2022 Institute and to supporting their efforts to promote racial equity and healing on their campuses and in their communities.”

Hosted by individual colleges and universities, and in partnership with AAC&U, TRHT Campus Centers pursue the shared goal of preparing the next generation of leaders and thinkers to break down racial hierarchies and to dismantle the belief in a hierarchy of human value. Each center implements its own visionary action plan, based on the TRHT framework, to promote racial healing through campus-community engagement. The AAC&U Institute on TRHT Campus Centers is designed both to support the ongoing work of existing centers and to provide an introduction to the TRHT effort for institutions interested in hosting a new campus center.

“The growing importance of, and the need for, truth-telling, narrative change, and racial healing is evident by the number of institutions that elected to attend the institute,” said Tia Brown McNair, AAC&U Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the TRHT Campus Centers. “We remain humbled that our colleagues continue to partner with us on this effort to build more just and equitable institutions and communities.”

The Institute curriculum is focused on developing and refining transformative action plans to advance the five components of the TRHT framework: narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, law, and economy. Together, these five areas encompass the individual, communal, and systemic structures that perpetuate arbitrary divisions based on race. Twenty leaders and changemakers from existing TRHT Campus Centers will serve as mentors and work closely with teams during the Institute. The development and refinement of campus action plans will culminate in an opportunity for discussion and feedback from mentors, participants, evaluators, and the AAC&U TRHT team. Concurrent workshops also will be offered as learning opportunities for participants throughout the Institute.

The following institutions will send teams to the 2022 Institute:

  • Baldwin Wallace University
  • Bellevue College
  • Benedictine University
  • California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
  • California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt
  • Centenary College of Louisiana
  • Cheyney University
  • Cornell University
  • Dixie State University
  • Eastern Oregon University
  • Emory University
  • Florida International University
  • Franklin & Marshall College
  • Hofstra University
  • Hollins University
  • Indiana University South Bend
  • Irvine Valley College
  • Kansas State University
  • La Sierra University
  • Landmark College
  • Missouri College and Career Attainment Network
  • Monroe Community College
  • Mount Holyoke College
  • North Hennepin Community College
  • Northeastern Illinois University
  • Penn State Brandywine
  • State University of New York at Oswego
  • The College of St. Scholastica
  • The University of the South
  • Trinity University
  • University of Arkansas at Little Rock
  • University of Connecticut
  • University of Minnesota, College of Liberal Arts
  • University of Minnesota Rochester
  • University of Nebraska at Omaha
  • University of North Carolina Wilmington
  • University of Utah
  • Wartburg College
  • Wayne State University
  • Westfield State University

The following existing TRHT Campus Center host institutions will send teams to the 2022 Institute:

  • Adelphi University
  • Agnes Scott College
  • Alamo Colleges District
  • Andrews University
  • Austin Community College
  • Bethel College
  • Big Sandy Community & Technical College
  • California State University, Long Beach
  • Dominican University
  • Georgia Highlands College
  • Holy Names University
  • Hope College
  • Loyola Marymount University
  • Marymount University
  • Marywood University
  • Mercer County Community College
  • Middlesex Community College
  • Montgomery College
  • Northern Illinois University
  • Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA)
  • Otterbein University
  • Pepperdine University
  • Prince George's Community College
  • Queensborough Community College
  • Rutgers University–Camden
  • Rutgers University–Newark
  • Seton Hall University
  • Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
  • St. Petersburg/Pinellas Higher Education for Race Equity (SPHERE)
  • State University of New York at Plattsburgh
  • Suffolk University
  • The Citadel
  • UC Davis Health
  • University of Hawai'i at Hilo
  • University of Hawai'i at Mānoa

Learn more about the AAC&U Institute on Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Centers.

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, 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.