The College of New Jersey was one of 78 institutions from across the country chosen to participate in the AAC&U Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Center Institute which took place virtually June 22–25.
Three TCNJ administrators attended the four-day intensive program: James Felton, vice president for inclusive excellence; Raj Manimaran, community relations director; and Brittany Aydelotte, director of the CEL Institute at the Center for Community Engagement.
“Participating in the highly-selective TRHT Summer Institute helped the team identify what we are doing well, and areas for improvement in order to address a number of historic, social, and cultural gaps that exist for certain members of the campus and local community,” Felton said. “The college’s participation in the institute also continues President Foster’s goal to work towards becoming an anti-racist institution.”
The mission of this effort is the development of at least 150 self-sustaining, community-integrated TRHT Campus Centers that will prepare the next generation of strategic leaders to break down racial hierarchies and dismantle the belief in the hierarchy of human value.
“Through this program we gained valuable insights and strategies to promote meaningful and lasting change on TCNJ’s campus and within the local community,” Felton said. “Specifically, we gained an understanding of how we could create change through the areas of narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, law, and economy.”
The TRHT Campus Centers, which began in 2018, have developed and are implementing visionary action plans with the aim of moving the needle on the transformative goal of erasing structural barriers to equal treatment and opportunity on campuses, in our communities, and for our nation.