Project Overview

President Clinton¡s call for a national conversation on race stimulated many people¡s interest in securing this nation¡s future as a vibrant, inclusive, multiracial democracy. Within the higher education community this call has renewed the commitment of many students, administrators, faculty, staff and trustees to create college campuses that reflect the breadth of human experience and model healthy and vibrant multiracial and multicultural communities.

College campuses have emerged as central testing grounds for fostering healthy intergroup relations across a variety of dimensions: between students; among students, faculty, and staff; and between the campuses and their neighboring communities. The dynamics of these interactions reflect the personal stories of the individuals involved as well as institutional histories and relationships.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities¡ initiative, American Commitments: Diversity, Democracy and Liberal Learning, provides a new opportunity to re-frame our debates and dialogues about race relations. Launched in 1993, the American Commitments initiative created a new forum for deliberative conversations about both individual and societal understandings of diversity. From these conversations emerged new insights into the aspirations and practical applications of principles that provide the foundation for the United States as a pluralistic, justice-seeking, democratic experiment. Daily we test and are tested by these principles.

But we all understand that campuses cannot do this work alone. Through this project, we are supporting campuses in establishing relationships and conducting shared projects with a variety of local stakeholders interested in exploring the following question:

How can higher education, with its local communities, prepare graduate to address the legacies of racism and the opportunities for racial reconciliation in the United States?

More than 50 colleges and universities are participating in Racial Legacies and Learning: An American Dialogue. These campuses have displayed an institutional commitment to diversity through institutional vision and leadership, curriculum transformation projects, and strong campus-community connections.

Racial Legacies and Learning gives higher education an opportunity to create new partnerships with local communities. Rather than letting definitions be established by headlines and unchallenged assumptions, we believe that, through these partnerships, campuses can create healthier intergroup relations and mirror possibilities for the future of our increasingly diverse and multiracial democracy.