Publication
Becoming a Student-Ready College
A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success, 2nd Edition
Program Office
AAC&U’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success (DESS) accelerates institutional transformation by advancing equity and student success efforts in service to diverse populations, academic excellence, and social justice.
AAC&U’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Student Success supports college and university campuses by developing and implementing evidence-based strategies that elevate high-impact teaching and learning experiences, that address the “how” and “why” of inequities in student outcomes, and that prioritize capacity-building efforts that achieve higher levels of student success and engagement.
DESS seeks to prepare the next generation of strategic leaders and thinkers to advance equity, diversity, and social justice through higher levels of personal and social responsibility.
Diversity and equity are not just hot topics or buzzwords for AAC&U—they are fundamental values and core tenets of our mission. DESS leads several projects designed to prepare higher education institutions with tools for success to support students from traditionally marginalized and racially minoritized backgrounds.
AAC&U is partnering with higher education institutions to host self-sustaining, community-integrated Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers. Organized around the five pillars of the TRHT framework—narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, law, and economy—the centers prepare the next generation of strategic leaders and thinkers to eliminate racism and dismantle the belief in a hierarchy of human value.
AAC&U’s project to Strengthen Guided Pathways seeks to build institutional capacity and to develop resources that will help institutions strengthen their efforts to ensure students are learning, as part of the Guided Pathways framework for student success.
The Purposeful Pathways project supports faculty-led efforts to strengthen curricular coherence and intentionality by enhancing guided learning pathways. These include well-planned sequential learning experiences that guide students in developing the intellectual skills and practical knowledge they will need for success in their life, work, and as engaged citizens.
AAC&U’s Teaching-Learning-Assessment (TLA) Framework is a practical, web-based tool used to help institutions build capacity to ensure students are learning. Organized by five phases and featuring elements such as campus spotlights, campus videos, guiding questions, and team activities, the TLA Framework offers strategies for how to successfully implement and scale the fourth pillar of the Guided Pathways model, Ensure Students Are Learning.
AAC&U is developing a Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT)-Focused Campus Climate Assessment Toolkit. Using lessons learned from AAC&U’s work with TRHT Campus Centers and guided by the TRHT Framework developed by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the toolkit will help institutions and practitioners examine systems, policies, programs, services, and practices that perpetuate disparities and inequities through a false belief in the hierarchy of human value. The toolkit will complement existing campus climate surveys and will help institutions identify actionable strategies and practices to examine and, hopefully, transform harmful racial narratives and build relationships that nurture diversity and equity. The project team is collaborating with nineteen institutions selected to participate in the development process for the toolkit. These selected institutions will evaluate the toolkit’s content validity, relevance, and ability to enact institutional change.
The AAC&U Conference on Diversity, Equity, and Student Success focuses on building coalitions and breaking down institutional siloes to create more just and equitable campuses and communities. This conference includes opportunities to explore how educators are advancing effective practices, identifying solutions to enduring challenges, and leading change for the common good.
Research shows that students involved in high-impact practices (HIPs) enjoy higher levels of learning success. These evidence-based practices include service learning, undergraduate research, and internships—to name a few. AAC&U’s Institute on High-Impact Practices and Student Success helps campus teams refine and assess their HIPs with an emphasis on quality, equity, and student engagement. Attendees participate in intentional reflection on institutional outcomes, develop comprehensive action plans, and have individualized consultations with HIPs faculty. The institute helps campus and system-level teams create sustainable student success goals and monitor progress toward achieving equity to improve educational outcomes for all students
The growing division across racial and ethnic identities in America cannot be ignored. How can colleges and universities act, transform, and heal from the legacies and harm of racism and bias? AAC&U is partnering with higher education institutions to develop TRHT Campus Centers to prepare the next generation of strategic leaders and thinkers to promote racial healing and address current inequities grounded in notions of a racial hierarchy. As a part of this national effort, each TRHT Campus Center prioritizes expansive, community-based healing activities that seek to change collective community narratives and broaden the understanding of our diverse experiences.
Publication
A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success, 2nd Edition
Magazine
Community engagement lessons from George Floyd Square
Magazine
Ways to promote both freedom of expression and inclusion
Magazine
An inclusive campus community must include trustees with diverse backgrounds
Magazine
Why safe campus spaces matter
Magazine
How educators can support students who learn differently
Web Exclusive
How colleges and universities can help rebuild America's refugee resettlement capacity
Publication
This publication provides individuals an overview of the methodology, tools, and resources needed to facilitate and engage in the Rx Racial Healing approach for transformational change in colleges, organizations, and communities.
Magazine
A veteran’s perspective on the challenges of going to college
Magazine
Colleges can inspire rural high school students to pursue a liberal arts education
Magazine
As demographics change, educators must act quickly to support Latinx students
Magazine
Reflections on lessons learned in a time of disruption
Magazine
First, be intentional about why your campus is creating one
Magazine
Serving Deaf and hard of hearing students on our campuses
Web Exclusive
How UNCP provides a pathway to graduate school for students from underrepresented minority groups
Publication
In 2019, twenty community colleges joined Strengthening Guided Pathways and Career Success by Ensuring Students Are Learning, a two-year project led by the American Association of Colleges and Universities.
Web Exclusive
Houston colleges and universities collaborate for student success
Magazine
We must challenge our biases and create inclusive experiences for all students
Publication
This publication tells the LEAP story and situates it within the broader context of AAC&U’s work to integrally connect liberal learning with the wider world, and combine liberal education with inclusive excellence and equity.
Web Exclusive
How community colleges are strengthening guided pathways and ensuring students are learning
Institute\
Expanding TRHT Campus Centers to Dismantle Racial Hierarchies and Build Equitable Communities
Institute\
Expanding TRHT Campus Centers to Dismantle Racial Hierarchies and Build Equitable Communities
Magazine
How three institutions are getting it done
Institute\
Transforming Research into Sustainable Models for Educational Quality, Equity, and Student Engagement
Institute\
Strengthening Institutional Capacity for Quality, Equity, and Student Engagement
Web Exclusive
Proven best practices for transfer-in student success
Web Exclusive
Now is the time to make good on its promise
Web Exclusive
General education, cohorts, and closing equity gaps at scale
Web Exclusive
Agnes Scott College is focusing on truth-telling, educating, and collaborating with communities on campus and beyond
Conference\
Leading Change by Strengthening Connections and Building Coalitions for More Just and Equitable Campuses and Communities
Magazine
Intercultural communication must be part of all learning
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The challenges and promise of viewpoint diversity
Web Exclusive
Decentering whiteness and privilege
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Reflecting on those we’ve lost and a process for healing and transformation
Web Exclusive
A grassroots effort to increase faculty diversity, equity, and inclusion
Web Exclusive
Several colleges and universities have canceled diversity, equity, and inclusion programs
Web Exclusive
Supporting disabled and nondisabled students at the University of Arizona
Magazine
Black experiences need to be an integral part of college curricula
Magazine
Hint: Avoid a routine approach—and focus on building trust
Magazine
Building trust and connections between community members and police
Magazine
Upholding two core values essential to the pursuit of the common good
Magazine
Are your campus mental health professionals prepared to support students from a variety of backgrounds?
Magazine
Fostering independent thought and dialogue across differences is how we counter authoritarianism
Magazine
A fresh approach to AAC&U’s flagship quarterly, full of thoughtful insights about this upside-down moment in higher ed—and the world
Magazine
Newspapers face challenges to a free press on increasingly diverse and polarized campuses
Web Exclusive
Racial healing and speaking across difference
Publication
This publication describes the work of Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at colleges and universities across the ctountry to dismantle the tools that perpetuate oppression and entrenched racial hierarchies....
On-Demand Webinar\
Colleges and universities are leading the way on improving voter engagement of our diverse populations of student learners, and data show this focus is working. Yet students in some disciplines vote at lower rates than others.
On-Demand Webinar\
Join the conversation to share strategies for supporting student success and advancing equity in new contexts—during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
On-Demand Webinar\
How can Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) inform strategies to address the increasing normalization of hate within our communities? Given the power of the internet and social media for spreading white supremacist thought, Jessie Daniel
Web Exclusive
Thirteen New Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Centers
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Drawing from campus-based research projects sponsored by the AAC&U and the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California, From Equity Talk to Equity Walk provides practical guidance on the design and application...
On-Demand Webinar\
What is the role of community—as a concept, an outcome, and an entity—in a liberal education, and how can community contribute to student success? How do students experience community, on and off campus?
On-Demand Webinar\
With an increase in incidents centered around interfaith misunderstanding on campuses and in communities, a number of institutions are reporting a need for student, faculty, and staff preparation for interfaith engagement.
Publication
Presenting findings from a three-year project on Committing to Equity and Inclusive Excellence led by AAC&U in partnership with the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California, A Vision for Equity shares lessons...
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Focused on issues of access and success, this publication provides a framework for dialogue, assessment, and action to address inequities in higher education institutions. It offers practical guidance for campus leaders and practitioners who...
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A resource for faculty members, academic leaders, and policymakers, this publication provides clear principles and guidelines for ensuring that general education fosters essential learning outcomes and key proficiencies important for...
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Although the term “global learning” is used widely across higher education, faculty, staff, and other practitioners do not always agree about what it means. Published jointly by AAC&U and NAFSA: Association of International Educators, this...
Publication
This publication provides sound advice and practical planning tools for educational leaders who seek to invest in innovation, despite budget constraints. The authors present and discuss several campus examples of wise investment in the ...
Magazine
How three institutions are getting it done
Web Exclusive
Agnes Scott College is focusing on truth-telling, educating, and collaborating with communities on campus and beyond
Web Exclusive
Supporting disabled and nondisabled students at the University of Arizona
To support AAC&U's TRHT effort in advancing quality and equity in higher education, we invite members of our community to donate to the Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation fund today.