AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Fifteen historically Black colleges and universities - or HBCUs - have teamed up to boost their research status. The Association of HBCU Research Institutions hopes that getting the top research status will benefit students and professors by making the schools more competitive for billions of dollars in government money. The group has been years in the making but was only announced last week. It includes Prairie View A&M University, Tennessee State University, Hampton University and Morgan State University, whose president, David K. Wilson, chairs the association. David K. Wilson joins us now. Thanks for being with us.
DAVID K WILSON: Oh, thank you very much, Ayesha, for having me.
RASCOE: And so I want to start with, like, you know, putting Morgan State University in the same research-tier status as Stanford and Johns Hopkins would obviously bring more than just, like, material benefits. Tell us how it will help you attract top faculty and top students.
WILSON: Well, certainly. And we feel that these institutions are at a point now where we can build research enterprises to look at issues ranging from public health to artificial intelligence and quantum and cybersecurity and chronic diseases and a lot of issues that we think we can bring a different perspective to addressing because we have deep experience in working in spaces that are often overlooked in marginalized communities. We want to bring something different to the floor.
RASCOE: How does that work in this moment now, when even, you know, terms like equity and/or inclusion or any of those things are being singled out to have grants pulled in this anti-DEI push by the Trump administration?
WILSON: We have been producing research that have led to so many innovations already, and that is with underinvestment in this enterprise. Just think what could happen if then there's a recognition that something is missing significantly, you know, from what has happened in the research space in this country. And there's an opportunity now to invest in institutions that can bring that to the table. I think that's very empowering, and we as a nation should be embracing this as a path to our long-term competitiveness.
RASCOE: And Harvard University, the most iconic of all the research universities, has been a sponsor of this program. Why is Harvard involved?
WILSON: They're looking back several years ago at, really, how Harvard got to be Harvard and even how Harvard accumulated some of the wealth that it did. And that kind of led Harvard to look at its relationship to slavery. I think they set aside an endowment there of $100 million to basically then begin to look at how they could strategically invest in some institutions that really are about opportunities for descendants of enslaved people who still were left behind.
RASCOE: And so what is the goal going forward? What are some of the other goals?
WILSON: Well, you know, certainly the production of more PhDs in critical fields where there are gaps. We expect to see many more patents coming out of the institutions that will result in spinoff companies, startup companies. Of course, we fully expect that the institutions will strengthen their infrastructure in terms of research and be in a position, certainly within a decade, where their research expenditures - that would be $500 million a year.
RASCOE: That's Dr. David K. Wilson, president of Morgan State University in Baltimore. He's the board chair of the newly formed Association of HBCU Research Institutions. Thank you so much for joining us.
WILSON: Once again, thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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