Actions Aim for Racial Justice

Downes and Chapel

Following the tumultuous summer of 2020 and demands from students, the Task Force on Campus Climate produced the College’s Action Plan for Racial Justice. The co-chairs of the task force were President Joanne Berger-Sweeney and Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Anita Davis.

The plan represents an effort across the institution to identify, organize, and categorize actions that have been taken or plans that will be implemented to support a more inclusive community. The creation of the task force in fall 2020 followed a summer in which the world, the nation, and the campus experienced a reckoning regarding matters of racial and social justice. “These events, including what we heard from the Umoja Coalition and various alumni groups, were catalysts for the task force and this plan,” the co-chairs said. “Now, we not only commit to making space for ongoing institutional reflection and collective action but also want to recognize the work that has been done and the progress already made.”

Read the Action Plan for Racial Justice here.

With these goals in mind, The Primus Project: Slavery, Race, and Reconstruction at Trinity College was launched as a way to tell a truer and fuller story of Trinity’s history than most people know. The project explores the ways Trinity College—the institution and individuals associated with it—engaged with systems of slavery and white supremacy. It is a research-driven, community-based initiative to better understand the college’s past and forge a more just and inclusive present. By conducting archival research, making primary materials available online, and ultimately producing a report of the findings, the project aims to uncover a hidden past and engage the broader community in a deeper understanding of the College’s history. Learn more about the Primus Project.

At the same time, the College has formed committees to reconsider building names; re-examine ways it commemorates individuals; and initiate efforts to reimagine the lived relationships between the campus and its broader community today. Click here to read the November 2022 update from President Berger-Sweeney about the Committee on Named Facilities and Commemoratives.