in focus
By Brandon Klein
A Center for Transformation
Otterbein focuses on education inequality with new program
O
tterbein University is demonstrating its commitment to diversity and inclusion in becoming Ohio’s first Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center. In February 2020, the university announced its recognition as one of 23 universities to host the center. Since then, Otterbein has rolled out activities, classes and programming to become a safe, education-focused space to talk about race and social justice in central Ohio. Otterbein hopes to change the way community members think and talk about race-related issues. “We wanted to do it because it is part of Otterbein’s mission,” says Kathryn Plank, associate provost for Otterbein’s academic affairs division. The TRHT concept is a national collaboration between the Association of American Colleges & Universities and
A Piece of History In 1955, Ohio legislators removed the requirement that school districts shared the same boundaries with the city they served. Through the 1970s, the city of Columbus began annexing land that belonged to the suburban districts, opening the possibility for Columbus schools to petition the State Board of Education to transfer those areas into its district as well. Columbus schools began to take such action in 1971 with land in the Grandview Heights area, and in 1980 requested to transfer all annexed properties into its district, prompting conflict between Columbus schools and suburban counterparts, including Westerville. State legislators got involved, but eventually in 1986 the win-win agreement among Columbus and 12 suburban school districts established procedures and a revenue sharing arrangement among the involved parties. The agreement was reauthorized by all 12 school districts several times except for Reynoldsburg City Schools, which opted out of the agreement in 1998. 14 March/April 2021
communities, designed to bring about sustainable change and to address the historic and contemporary effects of racism. In 2016, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation designed the TRHT’s framework with 176 leaders and scholars as representatives – all of whom have a reach of more than 289 million people. Otterbein received about $25,000 in grants to get its own TRHT off the ground, with the hopes of becoming a continuous, sustainable program in the coming years. Over the past year – despite COVID-19 – Otterbein has begun to engage with its campus community www.westervillemagazine.com
