MHC becomes Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Center, cont’d

u CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 the town of South Hadley to develop its own DEI plan that would provide similar training sessions to vendors throughout the Village Commons.

“We wanted to make sure all those diversity, equity and inclusion opportunities were available to people who wanted to continue to do the work of racial healing, both within Mount Holyoke and [also including] anyone who was peripheral to the campus,” Sanders-McMurty said.

The DEI Committee sees student voices and involvement as a key part of its vision. As a TRHT Center, they hope to gain the funding needed to organize immersive opportunities for students. Those opportunities would be similar to the racial heal- ing trips faculty and staff have taken, such as last year’s trip to Atlanta.

This Atlanta trip focused on the civil rights movement. Attendants participated in the Civil Rights Heritage Tour, a program honoring people who participated in the movement and remain unrecognized.

From Atlanta, the group traveled to Selma, walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and took a bus tour of important places visited by Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

“There are still a lot of perilous realities of life in modern America, particularly for Black and brown people,” Gaia said in regard to the Atlanta trip. “How can we simultaneously honor the past and [think] about where we are in the present moment and [remain] fiercely committed to doing something different- ly?”

In the future, Sanders-McMurty hopes for students to travel to cities such as Atlanta and Memphis, and visit museums such as the Holocaust

Museum and an indigenous American museum in D.C. These trips would provide an immersive aspect to Mount Holyoke’s racial healing vision and encourage students to re- flect on the history of racial justice.

“I think for students … you’re only here for four years and those four years should be an incredible experience,” Sanders-McMurty said. “It shouldn’t be hindered by all these kinds of ways that people harm each other.”

As a TRHT Center, the DEI Committee is looking forward to continuing their anti-racist work and elaborating on their long-term vision to make Mount Holyoke a safer and more welcoming place.

“I think truth, racial healing and transformation are big, lofty concepts and ideals. I am most looking forward to the fact that this provides a touchstone for our entire community to have this point of reflection that this is [work] we’re committed to,” Gaia said.