Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Center
Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Center
In October 2021 SUNY Plattsburgh was selected to host a new Truth, Racial Healing
and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center by the AAC&U and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
SUNY Plattsburgh is now one of 48 TRHT Campus Centers nationwide and the only SUNY
campus to be selected in this competitive selection process. By becoming a TRHT Campus
Center, we partner with the AAC&U and W.K. Kellogg Foundation to pursue the shared
goal of preparing the next generation of leaders and thinkers to break down racialized
practices and to dismantle the belief in a hierarchy of human value (AAC&U, 2021).
Join Us — All Are Welcome
Join us for Healing Circles every first Friday of the month from noon to 1 p.m. in
the Angell College Center H.U.B. All are welcome.
Our Vision
Our campuses will be a crucible for conversation that can dismantle historical racial
narratives, sentiments and systems related to the hierarchy of human value between
students, among inward community values and among outward facing community members.
As such, we aim to recruit and retain a racially diverse student body, faculty and
staff.
Healing Circles — Our Stories Matter
Truth Telling
False narratives hamper our ability to understand our world and relationships as they
are, leading us to create and reinforce perceptions that are untrue. Help change the
narrative.
Relationship Building
We work to heal from the wounds of the past, to build mutually respectful relationships
across racial and ethnic lines that honor and value each person’s humanity, and to
build trusting, intergenerational and diverse community relationships that better
reflect our common humanity.
We teach when we speak; we learn when we listen; we build when we share; we heal when
we trust.
About TRHT Rx Racial Healing™ Circles
The Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion hosts dialogue opportunities that
bring together cross-racial groups to share stories, disrupt unjust narratives and
behaviors and to speak as a collective.
Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Rx Racial Healing™ Circles are open to
any student, staff, faculty, or community members who wish to come together in dialogue.
Please join us and speak your truths. See the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion campus calendar for dates and times of future Rx Racial Healing™ Circles and other TRHT Center events.
Come and share a safe space where your voice can be heard, where you can share your
lived experience and truly listen to others in an effort to bring our campus and community
together.David Duprey, Executive Director of the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Campus
Center
TRHT focuses on the ultimate goal of jettisoning a belief in the false hierarchy of
human value. This TRHT framework has been created by hundreds of leaders, scholars,
and organizations to guide our work. According to the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, “The
TRHT Framework consists of five areas, and the first two: Narrative Change and Racial
Healing and Relationship Building, are foundational pillars for all TRHT work. And,
the remaining three areas are Separation, the Law and Economy.” (W.K. Kellogg Foundation)
“The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is partnering with
higher education institutions to develop Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT)
Campus Centers to ‘prepare the next generation of strategic leaders and thinkers to
break down racial hierarchies and dismantle the belief in the hierarchy of human value.’”
– AAC&U Website
Established in partnership with AAC&U and hosted by colleges and universities across
the country, TRHT Campus Centers pursue the shared goal of preparing the next generation
of leaders and thinkers to break down racialized practices and to dismantle the belief
in a hierarchy of human value. These self-sustaining, community-integrated campus
centers play a vital role in the national TRHT effort to address historical and contemporary
effects of racism and to promote transformational and sustainable change. Every institution
that applied to be TRHT Campus Center went through a competitive process to be selected
to host a TRHT Campus Center.
The launch of new TRHT Campus Centers at the institutions listed below is supported
by funding from Lumina Foundation, the Meyer Foundation, Trellis Foundation, and Wiley
Education Services, a division of Wiley:
Alamo Colleges District (TX)
California State University, Long Beach (CA)
Holy Names University (CA)
Hope College (MI)
Loyola Marymount University (CA)
Marymount University (VA)
Middlesex Community College (MA)
Montgomery College (MD)
Northern Virginia Community College (VA)
Northern Illinois University (IL)
Prince George’s Community College (MD)
Queensborough Community College (NY)
University of Hawai’i at Hilo (HI)
Supported by funding from ETS, two institutions in New Jersey will launch new TRHT
Campus Centers:
Mercer County Community College (NJ)
Rutgers University–Camden (NJ)
Three additional institutions have recently launched self-funded TRHT Campus Centers:
As the centerpiece of the TRHT Framework, Rx Racial Healing™ Circles, are meant to
ground the various elements of the TRHT methodology in a compassionate and expansive
forum for sharing personal truth to help begin the process of transforming hearts
and minds. The Rx Racial Healing™ Circle methodology stresses active listening, being
open to the perspectives and experiences of others, and is based on “building a national
organizational network and activating local action to promote racial healing and racial
equity.” (Christopher, 2018).
SUNY Plattsburgh has trained TRHT Rx Racial Healing™ Circle co-facilitators and offers
training for faculty, staff, students, and community members to become certified co-facilitators.
To learn more, please contact the SUNY Plattsburgh Executive Director listed on this
page.
TRHT Rx Racial Healing™ Circles are held each first Friday of every month from noon
to 1 p.m. in the H.U.B. inside the Angell College Center.
I was never taught how to talk about race or anything that could be deemed “controversial.”
In the past I struggled with finding my voice because I was so afraid to say the wrong
thing, while at the same time being aware of the urgent necessity to break down that
apprehension. The Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation circles helped me to find
my voice in the conversation.Bridget Haina, Associate Professor of Digital Media Production
Our campus and external community have wrestled with issues related to various forms
of racial tension. Our TRHT Campus Center provides opportunities for campus and external
community members to free ourselves from the prison or cross-racial tension by widening
our circles of compassion through dialogue. Rx Racial Healing™ Circles intergroup
dialogue can be one of the greatest assets for our community members to further understanding
across differences and to share, explore and reflect on each other’s truths.
The TRHT Center will engage in racial healing circles with students, staff, faculty,
and community members to normalize difficult conversations and grow in our ability
to recognize issues that inhibit our connectedness as a community. The TRHT Center
will also focus on increasing the success of minoritized students by identifying barriers
and solutions to achieve racially equitable outcomes for student retention, graduation
and post-college success.
The TRHT Campus Center offers the opportunity for our community members to come together
in dialogue. Since November 2021 we have hosted weekly cross-racial conversations
on campus. In about 60 minutes, participants are able to walk away from the circle
learning about other community members on a deeper level.
The TRHT Campus Center is part of the Center of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, this
serves as our main center, our flagship. Part of our action plan was also to create
“de-centered centers” which are strategically placed around campus to be available
to host Rx Racial Healing™ Circles for students, staff and faculty to discuss racial
tensions, belonging and most importantly, to build relationships across the SUNY Plattsburgh
campus. The campus center consistently offers dialogue circles to change the culture
on campus. The pandemic and political climate has created a culture more silent. Moving
forward, we hope to shift campus culture through dialogue.