The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) announced that it will develop 10 Centers for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation at higher education institutions across the country. The centers will engage and empower campus and community stakeholders to break down racial hierarchies, to create positive narratives about all members of the community, and to prepare the next generation of strategic leaders to carry this work forward.
The effort is being funded with a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Gail C. Christopher, senior advisor and vice president at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, stated that “College campuses offer a productive place to examine and confront the deeply held, and often unconscious, beliefs created by racism. The Kellogg Foundation is optimistic that AAC&U will bring together critical thinkers and our next generation of strategic leaders to help us all abandon the belief in a hierarchy of human value and transform our society for the future.”
Lynn Pasquerella, president of Association of American Colleges and Universities, said “we are honored to partner with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in advancing racial and social justice through higher education leadership. Bridging the divide between research and scholarship taking place at colleges and universities and the lived experience of individuals and communities beyond the gates of academia is more important than ever. We look forward to working together to create an ascendant narrative that destabilizes hierarchies based on race and other contingencies of birth.”
