Initiative
A web-based toolkit that complements existing campus climate assessment tools and offers reflection-based and action-oriented guidance, strategies, and tools informed by the TRHT approach to support institutional transformation efforts.
It is becoming commonplace for colleges and universities to conduct campus climate assessments to get a sense of the experiences, sentiments, and needs of their campus communities, yet they are often challenged when it comes to translating the results of these assessments into informed, sustainable, and transformative change. The purpose of the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation™ (TRHT) Campus Climate Assessment Toolkit is to complement existing campus climate assessment tools and to support an in-depth and action-oriented process that occurs after an institution has completed a campus climate assessment to examine institutional policies, programs, and practices that perpetuate racial inequities.
In particular, the toolkit offers guidance for utilizing the five areas of the TRHT Framework (narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, law, and economy) as a lens to identify, explore, and address the issues brought to light by campus climate assessment findings. The toolkit is intended to serve as a robust resource for an institution to reference before and/or during: (1) the stages of analyzing or interpreting the results or (2) identifying, developing, coordinating, or implementing actions and initiatives in response to the results. The toolkit features activities and strategies that support the examination of how institutional systems, policies, and practices may exacerbate historical and implicit narratives around racial hierarchies, impede relationship-building opportunities, and hinder racial healing among students, faculty, staff, and community members.
While compatible with all modern web browsers, the toolkit is best viewed using Chrome or Firefox.
The toolkit is structured around six content areas: Ways of Knowing & Foundations for Healing, Communication, Decision-Making, Strategic Planning, Accountability, and Sustainability.
These areas were identified as being fundamental to post-campus climate assessment efforts based on insights and feedback from the 19 campus teams involved in the toolkit development phase.
This section covers individual, group, and organizational ways of knowing and their connection to the TRHT pillar of narrative change. It covers considerations for healing for the individual and within a campus community.
This section covers moving from transaction-focused to transformation-focused communication as well as connections to the TRHT pillars of narrative change and racial healing and relationship building.
This section offers a TRHT-informed approach to decision-making, including a two-step process of reflecting and reimagining along with considerations for the who, how, and what in the decision-making process.
This section covers strategic planning for the implementation of campus climate efforts, drawing on connections to all of the TRHT pillars and to other sections in the toolkit to inform and support institutional change.
This section offers a TRHT-informed approach to accountability with an introduction to expansive accountability and an emphasis on its interconnectedness with all of the TRHT pillars and with other sections in the toolkit.
This section offers TRHT-informed considerations for two key aspects of sustainability: (1) sustaining human and financial resources and (2) sustaining the work. It also covers connections to other sections in the toolkit.
The TRHT Campus Climate Assessment Toolkit is designed for use by any member of a campus community, with particular focus on individuals who are involved in the processes and outcomes that follow a campus climate assessment. Specifically, the toolkit will be most helpful to people who are in the position to drive the development, coordination, and implementation of post-assessment efforts at a department, unit, or campus-wide level.
The toolkit is designed to support institutions in the development, coordination, implementation, and evaluation of post-assessment efforts. Additionally, the toolkit may be helpful to institutions that are planning to conduct a campus climate assessment in the near future. These institutions may reference the toolkit for insights and points of consideration that will not only proactively inform the focus and scope of their assessment effort, but will also heighten the intentionality, efficacy, and equity of the practices and processes that surround that effort.
Each section contains guiding content that situates a content area in campus climate assessment work and draws connections to the TRHT Framework. Tools for the content areas are designed to facilitate identification, reflection, and/or planning among individual campus climate team members and full teams. Many of the tools ask for team members to come together to engage in exercises such as collective brainstorming and goal-setting, while other tools ask individual team members to first participate in similar exercises on their own. Additionally, there are resource materials for the content areas, which are meant to provide foundational information and strategies for specific topics.
This section is included to serve as a primer for those who are new to the TRHT approach and for those who would like to enrich their understanding of how the TRHT Framework can be conceptualized and translated into practice. Along with definitions, examples, and resources, this section features videos from three TRHT Campus Centers that showcase how they have fostered and sustained commitment to TRHT-focused work, particularly for improving campus climate at their institutions.
Supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, AAC&U and consultants from TriWest Group launched a two-year project in June 2021 to develop the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Climate Assessment Toolkit. Through an open call for proposals, 19 institutions that reflect a variety of institutional characteristics were selected to participate in the development process. Offering a diversity of perspectives, campus teams from each institution consisted of 5 to 15 members from key campus stakeholder groups, including students, faculty, and staff. The 19 participating institutions included institutions that are host sites to a TRHT Campus Center, and institutions interested in initiating and advancing TRHT-focused work on their respective campuses.
The project team conducted focus groups, structured interviews, and feedback meetings with these campus teams to learn about their individual and collective viewpoints, experiences, and approaches related to campus climate assessment, the advancement of racial equity, and the promotion of racial healing and relationship-building on their respective campuses and in their local communities. These campus teams served as invaluable thought partners by providing critical feedback on the relevance, structure, content, and useability of the toolkit
An independent evaluation of the toolkit was conducted in late 2023 into spring 2024 looking at how campus teams used the tools and resources to prepare, reflect, prioritize/plan, act, and monitor activities related to campus climate assessments, and seeking feedback on how the content and tools could be improved. Twenty campus teams reviewed content and provided feedback via surveys and focus groups. Nine institutions beta-tested selected content. AAC&U, together with consultants revised the toolkit based on the results of the evaluation.
Campus teams from these 22 institutions informed the development and feedback process for the TRHT Campus Climate Assessment Toolkit. (*indicates institutions that TRHT Campus Center host sites)
The TRHT Campus Climate Assessment Toolkit is provided by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) with permission to download and use solely for institutional use. If you adapt or modify content in this resource, please cite AAC&U. Please note that this resource is intended for non-commercial purposes only. Refer to our TRHT Campus Climate Assessment Toolkit citation page for guidelines.
