Adelphi’s TRHT Campus Center

The Creation and Growth of Adelphi’s TRHT Campus Center

As Long Island, New York’s oldest private institution of higher education, Adelphi University has long been committed to being a dynamic, respected contributor to the continual evolution and livelihood of our local communities. University leadership and the entire campus community recognize the vital role Adelphi plays in helping to change society’s narrative by educating future leaders and building connections that advance equity, inclusion, belonging, and racial justice.

In 2017, Adelphi’s Center for African, Black and Caribbean Studies collaborated with faculty members across our eight schools and colleges to bring to campus Gail C. Christopher, former senior vice president of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and architect of the TRHT framework. Christopher’s lecture at Adelphi conveyed her vision of advancing racial healing and social transformation in higher education and discussed the design and implementation of America’s first national TRHT effort, an adaptation of the globally recognized Truth and Reconciliation Commission model.

Following Christopher’s lecture, a proposal to become a TRHT Campus Center was spearheaded by Marsha J. Tyson Darling, PhD, now-retired Adelphi professor of history and interdisciplinary studies and then director of the University’s Center for African, Black and Caribbean Studies and supported by Perry Greene, Adelphi’s inaugural vice president for diversity and inclusion. Additional members of the proposal team included Carol Ann Daniel, associate dean of Adelphi’s School of Social Work, Jacqueline Johnson, associate professor of sociology, John Drew, assistant professor of communications; and community partners in education from Long Island’s Sewanhaka Central School District.

In late 2019, the AAC&U selected Adelphi as one of 13 institutions comprising the second cohort of TRHT Campus Centers across the United States, expanding the original group of 10 centers to 23. Adelphi was the only college or university in New York State to be selected for the second cohort until 2024.

By March 2020, Adelphi began to implement an array of interactive TRHT framework-based activities to engage and empower our campus community to work together toward changing the narrative internally. We began with a focus on the student mentoring program, athletics program, Greek organizations, faculty and administrative leadership, student organizations, and staff who expressed a commitment to racial education and healing.

Adelphi’s TRHT Campus Center is also a vehicle for healing racial division and positively transforming interactions throughout our surrounding communities. The Center collaborates across Adelphi to help campus partners nurture relationships with community organizations. Community partners on Long Island include the Sewanhaka School District, the Interfaith Nutrition Network (The INN) and the P.E.A.C.E. Afterschool Program Inc. (Partnerships in Education to Avoid Criminal Justice System Entry), among others.

Institutionalizing the TRHT Framework at Adelphi

In 2022, Adelphi’s TRHT Campus Center hosted eight Racial Healing Circles for executive and senior leadership, members of the College of Professional and Continuing Studies, Honors College, and College of Arts and Sciences, student government leaders, and parents, staff and volunteers from the P.E.A.C.E. Afterschool Program.

Through Adelphi’s strategic efforts and TRHT-facilitated conversations and activities, Adelphi community members are encouraged to do the work of racial healing and relationship-building by:

• reflecting upon their own understanding of differences
• developing deeper cross-cultural understandings
• becoming more open to other perspectives and experiences
• building a supportive network of allies throughout our campus community.