St. Petersburg College: Educational Consortium Named Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (THRT) Campus Center

Press release from the St. Petersburg College:

2021-12-17

The St. Petersburg/Pinellas Higher Education for Racial Equity (SPHERE) Consortium has been named a Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (THRT) Campus Center by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).  The consortium will join a diverse network of more than 50 centers at colleges and universities across the country, marking a key milestone in AAC&U’s effort to establish at least 150 self-sustaining, community-integrated TRHT Campus Centers.

“We are thrilled to welcome these new host institutions into the growing network of TRHT Campus Centers across the country and to both recognize and support their groundbreaking work to promote racial equity and healing,” said AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella.

The SPHERE Consortium includes:

SPC Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Director Dr. Devona Pierre is excited to represent St. Petersburg and Pinellas County as a part of the TRHT team. 

“Through SPHERE, I look forward to working with our partners in building an inclusive community that drives economic development,” Pierre said. “SPC has the overall goal of providing opportunities for our students to be prepared for high-wage, high-need careers and professional growth, which will contribute to their economic success and improve the quality of life within our community.”

“Today, as we recognize our progress toward reaching our partnership goals and as we thank the institutional leaders who have joined with us in the TRHT effort, we remain focused not on the numbers, but on the necessary work ahead with a community of educators and students who are dedicating their time and expertise to dismantle racism and racialized practices within our institutions and communities,” said Tia McNair, AAC&U Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Student Success and Executive Director for the TRHT Campus Centers.

TRHT 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. With the shared goal of preparing the next generation of leaders and thinkers to break down racialized practices and to dismantle the false belief in a hierarchy of human value, each campus center uses the TRHT framework to implement its own visionary action plan to promote racial healing through campus-community engagement.

At the annual AAC&U Institute on Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Centers, teams from institutions interested in hosting a TRHT Campus Center come together with teams from existing host institutions to identify evidence-based strategies that support their visions of what their communities will look, feel, and be like when the belief in a hierarchy of human value is no longer held. The AAC&U Institute is central to building the capacity of new and existing centers to further the vision of the national TRHT movement.

“TRHT Campus Centers provide evidence—and hope—that, working alongside community partners, colleges and universities can help transform the racial narrative and heal the wounds of racism’s legacies,” Pasquerella said.

This press release was produced by the St. Petersburg College. The views expressed here are the author’s own.