The Papa John’s Foundation will donate $500,000 over two-years to the Association of American Colleges and Universities. (AAC&U) to develop 150 centers on campuses that will work to ensure equal racial treatment and opportunity.
The Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers will train strategic leaders and thinkers to erase structural barriers and break down racial hierarchies that exist in society today.
A part of the grant will be used to support the centers already established within ten higher educational institutes across the country, including Brown University and Duke University. The additional new centers will be selected through a call for proposals process that will be announced later this year.
“Their support will enable AAC&U to carry its Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation program, aimed at jettisoning a belief in the hierarchy of human value, to the next level,” AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella said.
“Only by working together to upend structural racism and classism will we be able to fulfill the promise of American higher education.”
Last year, The Papa John’s Foundation found itself in the midst of controversy after its founder, John Schnatter, used the n-word during a media training conference call. His behavior evoked severe backlash from various colleges that received grants from the foundation.
Following the incident, Purdue University and Ball State University returned the donated money and removed Schnatter’s name from their research centers.
Purdue University Returns $8 Million Donated by Papa John’s Over Racial Slur