The Austin Community College District (ACC) is one of 10 institutions nationwide selected to serve as a site for a Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center. Formed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), TRHT Campus Centers are part of a multi-year initiative to educate, prepare, and inspire the next generation of leaders to break down racial hierarchies.
“ACC is honored to receive this recognition. The college is committed to ensuring all students, faculty, and visitors feel welcome regardless of ability, race, gender, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, citizenship status, or religion,” says Dr. Richard Rhodes, ACC president/CEO. “Together, we will build strategies for an equitable and inclusive community.”
The only Texas institution and only community college on the list, ACC was selected through a competitive process in which institutions submitted plans to create positive narratives about race, identify and examine current realities of race relations in their communities, and pinpoint levers for change.
“In the aftermath of the horrific, heartbreaking events in Charlottesville, we must not be silent. Instead, we must harness our collective intellectual, social and financial resources to transform words into action,” says Lynn Pasquerella, AAC&U president. “AAC&U is thrilled to partner with these first 10 outstanding institutions on our way to establishing 150 centers across the country to ensure that higher education is playing a leadership role in promoting racial and social justice.”
The ten institutions selected as sites for the first TRHT Campus Centers are:
- Austin Community College
- Brown University
- Duke University
- Hamline University
- Millsaps College
- Rutgers University – Newark
- Spelman College
- The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina
- University of Hawaii at Manoa
- University of Maryland Baltimore County
Each institution will receive an initial award of $30,000 to develop and implement visionary plans that engage campus and community.
“AAC&U received 125 applications for this first cohort of TRHT Campus Centers,” said AAC&U Vice President Tia Brown McNair. “The high level of interest and commitment from higher education institutions to engage in the difficult, yet deeply necessary, work to address racism within our communities is, in itself, a hopeful step in the process of transforming our country’s racial narrative and preparing students to be change agents.”
Initiated in 2016 by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, TRHT is a comprehensive, national and community-based process to plan for and bring about transformational and sustainable change, and to address the historic and contemporary effects of racism.
The campus centers are supported in part by the Newman’s Own Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation,. For more information about AAC&U’s TRHT initiative and resources, visit http://www.aacu.org/trht. To learn more about Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation, visit http://healourcommunities.org.
Tags: Association of American Colleges and Universities, eQuity, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus, Truth
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By Nancy Hernandez August 17, 2017 - 3:00 pm
What an outstanding honor for Austin Community College to be awarded this responsibility! I am always proud to tell others that I work for ACC – TODAY I AM ELATED. I look forward to having the opportunity to make whatever contribution I can to this worthy endeavor.
By Valori Riethmayer August 17, 2017 - 6:27 pm
As a graduate and employee of ACC, I am proud we were chosen to lead by example.
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. Maya Angelou
By Laura Tabor-Huerta September 8, 2017 - 5:41 pm
Yeah! “inspire the next generation of leaders to break down racial hierarchies.”
I am an advocate my whole life. Proud to be an ACC staff member.
By Samuel Echevarria-Cruz September 14, 2017 - 3:22 pm
I look forward to moving forward with this important work, for all of ACC!
By Blanca Alvarado October 4, 2017 - 1:42 am
What a great honor to be one of the 10 nationwide institutions to be selected as a TRHT Campus Center. I look forward to seeing how the Sociology and Social Work depatment can be part of this great work.