Fred. A. Bonner II, Ed.D., professor, endowed chair in Educational Leadership and Counseling and founder and director of the MACH-III Center at Prairie View A&M University, was selected for a three-year term on the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities CADE Executive Committee. The APLU is a research, policy, and advocacy organization dedicated to strengthening and advancing the work of public universities in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. “What’s great about the APLU is that HBCUs have an important voice and they are a part of the land-grant focus that ALPU pulls in alongside large research one, state, public and land-grant institutions,” said Bonner.
Because Bonner’s research has always focused on diversity, social justice, and equity and his experiences have been in both areas, he can see the landscape in higher education. “They say they see me playing an important role because I have experiences in Predominately White Institutions and HBCUs,” said Bonner, “Having the opportunity to sit at the table with all of these policymakers and key administrators who are talking about diversity on a national scale I think that says a lot.” He also thinks it is important for him to be a part of CADE because he gets to share the voice of an HBCU.
One of the most important things to Bonner during his three-year term is to foreground to see what it means to improve the opportunities, access, and success of African American males and females in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. In particular, he said that although the research states HBCUs represent only three percent of the universities in the country, they graduate 27 percent of STEM undergraduate students. “They need to know the best practices and all the stuff that is going on in HBCUs, and I think I will be able to shine a light,” said Bonner, “I’ll be able to do it through the vehicle the academy mostly respects and that’s research.”
Bonner said so often there are not individuals in the HBCU context who have the opportunities to engage in research as he has been able to before coming to Prairie View and during his time at the University. “That will be my focus: being able to foreground the good work HBCUs are doing,” said Bonner. His appointment on the board also gives him an opportunity to talk about this “somewhat new” concept of having a Research Center in an HBCU context.
“This gives me the opportunity to talk about MACH-III and replicating MACH-III in other HBCUs,” said Bonner, “Having researchers like me and research going on, by way of a center, on an HBCU campus.” He said there are known centers researching minority populations, but most of them are primarily at PWIs. “So to have a center like MACH III at a Minority Serving Institution or HBCU space, I think it is important for people to know on a national scale,” said Bonner.