Reps from 78 universities to attend 'racial healing circles' at upcoming professional event

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) will host its “2021 Institute on Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers” from June 22 to June 25.

AAC&U is a nonprofit that represents over 1,300 institutions with the goal to “advance the vitality and public standing of liberal education.” The group has selected 78 schools for this year’s event.

According to the institute’s event description, the program will train colleges interested in launching “TRHT Campus Centers” with “evidence-based strategies that support their stated vision of what their communities will look, feel, and be like when the belief in the hierarchy of human value no longer exists.”

TRHT Campus Centers were initially launched by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to “address” racism via “expansive, community-based healing activities that seek to change collective community narratives and broaden the understanding of our diverse experiences.”

David Tritelli, the AAC&U vice president for communications and public affairs, clarified with Campus Reform that they are indeed “partnering with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to advance the TRHT effort.”

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Attendees at the institute will participate in “racial healing circles,” workshops, and consulting sessions.

Sixty universities will send delegations to fourteen campuses hosting the program. Four slots have not yet been filled by university delegations, although all open slots will represent schools in Texas.

“AAC&U is thrilled to partner with colleges and universities of all types and sizes across the country to advance the TRHT effort within higher education,” commented AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella in a press release. “We look forward to the opportunity to learn with and from the participants in the 2021 Institute and to support their efforts to promote racial equity and healing on their campuses and in their communities.”

[RELATED: OSU-Tulsa becomes the latest campus to run ‘racial healing circles’]

As Campus Reform previously reported, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation is advancing the nationwide push to establish Centers for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation. Most recently, the group announced $24 million in funding to launch new centers across the United States.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft