Deconstruction zones: Campus racial healing program expands
Now that students at four colleges in New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are back on campus this fall, they will have access to a new resource for learning how to dismantle false beliefs about racial hierarchies.
Seven years after launching its Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation program in colleges, the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) has expanded the program, opening centers at Antioch University, Bard College, Cuyahoga Community College, and Elizabethtown College.
The new centers give professors, administrators, faculty members, and students a dedicated space to learn and guide discussions around race, gender, age, class, and spiritual beliefs as part of a concerted effort to bring healing dialogues throughout the United States in higher education institutions.
“We don’t dictate to any institution how they are implementing, how they will implement and realize the goals of TRHT, or how they would implement the TRHT areas within their institutional context,” said Tia McNair, a senior consultant with AACU. “They look at their strategic priorities, their student population, their community relationships, and partnerships to develop what we call an action plan, so each institution does it differently.”
The campus centers began in 2017 as a concept that was part strategic, part organic. The 10 initial host institutions — a mix of public and private schools — introduced various approaches for dismantling racial bias on campus, including racial healing circles and special dinners intended to create safe spaces for sensitive dialogue.
Since then, schools have continued to embrace virtual and in-person conversations that provide gentle reassurance — and sometimes uncomfortable exposure — to past and present-day events that have shaped views of race in society.
The host institutions range from liberal arts colleges and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to faith-based institutions and community colleges. The selection process for colleges includes training about how to speak the language of racial healing based on the Institute on Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation’s framework.
McNair, the former executive director of the TRHT Campus Centers, said the TRHT program is essential now more than ever.
“There are attacks happening on the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and our institutions within our communities, within our states, across the board,” said McNair. “I think that knowing that the growing majority of undergraduate students in this country are from racially minoritized groups … is critical for us to maintain and expand resources to help the success of all students.”
In tracking of 196 campuses in 29 states, the Chronicle of Higher Education found that colleges throughout the United States have eliminated their DEI programs due to political pressure, establishing an “inconsistent and confusing landscape.”
The effects of these changes are unclear, which is why McNair, who is also a partner at SOVA, a higher education consulting firm in Washington, D.C., would like campus centers to create opportunities for personal and professional development for marginalized students.
“Whether you are the student who is coming into the environment (and) may not be fully prepared — not at a fault of your own, but just because of circumstances – and may not be fully prepared to succeed in the same way as others, then how do we help you? How do we make sure that we actually live our commitment? That we fulfill our commitment to you as being part of this educational journey so that everyone has the opportunity to thrive?”
When education reform takes place at the federal, state, or local level, it can have predictable consequences, undoing decades of important work. This is why McNair hopes that the campus centers will serve as a springboard for repairing old wounds and sustaining supportive principles for community-building beyond campus.
The vision is to encourage ways of thinking that transcend the present political uncertainty, inviting ongoing dialogue and action.
“I think we as educators within higher education play a critical role in preparing the next generation of leaders to build more just and equitable communities,” said McNair. “This work is not about trying to get anyone to think in the same way we think, but to actually value each and every person’s human dignity, their contributions, their lived experiences in a way where we can transcend what has been causing division and conflict within our communities.”
For more information about the TRHT campus centers and their activities, click here.
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