Albright College has been named an inaugural member institution of the Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Alliance (LACRELA), a consortium of liberal arts colleges focused on confronting racism and racial equity.
Launched by the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center, LACRELA offers discussions and strategies on confronting explicit acts of racism and racial violence on campus, strategically hiring, supporting and retaining faculty and staff of color, and creating equitable pathways to leadership roles for employees of color.
In addition to live, synchronous professional learning experiences and an online repository of resources and tools, the center is developing a pair of workplace climate surveys for LACRELA member colleges, using the National Assessment of Collegiate Campus Climates (NACCC) survey as a guide. The NACCC is a rigorous, expert-validated quantitative survey that has been administered to more than 500,000 students at colleges and universities in every geographic region of the United States. It measures belonging and inclusion, the frequency and depth of cross-racial interactions, students’ appraisals of institutional commitment to diversity and inclusion, and other related topics.
Presidents of Alliance member colleges will meet at least quarterly to share strategies, seek advice and identify ways to leverage the alliance for collective impact on racial equity in higher education.
