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President Frederick Bonato served 10 months as interim before being appointed to the position full-time. MANHATTAN.EDU / COURTESY

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Grace Cardinal, Editor-in-Chief

President Frederick Bonato, Ph.D., has been named the 22nd president of Manhattan University. The permanent appointment was announced to the campus community in mid July via a press release from Stephen Squeri, ‘81, ‘86, chairman of the Board of Trustees. 

Bonato moves into this position after spending 10 months as the interim president, a position in which he began in September of 2024. Bonato is the successor of Milo Riverso, Ph.D., who stepped down after serving only one year in office. Bonato is now the fourth president students have seen at the university since 2022. Given the recent turnover in this position, and at the university as a whole, the newly-appointed president hopes to restore stability for students and the wider campus community. 

“Higher ed is a very challenging environment right now, but we have too much to offer here to not exist for another 172 years, at least,” Bonato said. “So stability is important, and that’s a lot of different things coming into play, but the other thing is to continue to help strengthen the community, and that means all the different parts coming together. Anything I can do to help make that stronger, I’m going to do.”

Bonato made it clear that he has no plans to vacate his position any time soon. 

“I want to be here for the rest of my career,” Bonato said. “I’m saying that bluntly. I don’t see this in any way as a stepping stone to any other position. I’d be happy to end my career here, because I already know that this is where I want to be.”

So far in his tenure, Bonato has worked on a multitude of projects, both directed at restoring tradition and ensuring the university is well-equipped to move into the future. Some of these projects include a revamped first year experience, the development of an IBM skills build program and more. 

“The biggest project that we’re working on right now, and it’s just something I’m personally jazzed about, is the first year experience,” Dean of Students Gerarda Shields, Ph.D., told The Quadrangle. “The idea of creating a series of curated activities, whether they’re explicitly for freshmen, or encouraging them to be part of the campus community, I see that as a model, not only for the first years, but also for our sophomores, our juniors, our seniors and graduate students, where the goal would be to create experiences that highlight each year as you move through Manhattan University.”

The Quadrangle also sat down with Interim Provost Bridget Chalk, Ph.D., to speak about some of the interdisciplinary projects being worked between her office and the president’s.

“We’re working on a lot of different things,” Chalk said. “One thing that will be talked about soon is a new interdisciplinary hub where we will attempt to accelerate innovation and collaboration across all different departments…There’ll be news about new interdisciplinary majors that will be launched for next year in various areas, with regards to emerging technology and bringing our strengths in business, engineering and liberal arts together.”

A recurring issue that both Bonato and faculty addressed is the issue of siloing in higher education and the plans to fix the practice at MU. In addition to this reform, Bonato has already made major strides for faculty, including reinstating benefits and raises. 

“There had been some freezes on certain benefits for faculty, including some raises for promotions and raises across the board,” Chalk said. “President Bonato, when he came on, made the determination to reinstate those in recognition of the hard work of our employees…He’s also created an environment where senior leadership is in pretty constant communication, so that we’re aware in a holistic way of what’s going on at the University. In higher education, there is a very common problem with what we call siloing over different departments and areas doing their own work, and not really being aware enough of what other areas are doing. And I think with President Bonato, we have started to work more closely together, and there is more constant communication and more collaboration across different areas.”

While the president has already made strides in his 10 months on campus, the work isn’t yet over. 

“I think that higher education is evolving really, really rapidly,” Chalk said. “And I think that in this field as well as in many other industries, we’re probably not going to recognize what everything will look like in five years. I’m really excited and hopeful for preserving our core mission and our experience for undergraduates, but also providing different sorts of more flexible programming, a more diverse set of offerings that engage with emerging technologies and changes in the workplace, and I think there are some great things on the horizon, in line with those priorities.”

As for what Shields hopes to see, an emphasis on returning to tradition is most important.

“What I would like to see, and this will take time, is the resurgence of tradition at Manhattan University,” Shields said. “It’s something that as an alum, I hold dear, and those memories have stayed with me for decades, and I hope for a lifetime, and I wish that for our students.”

While Bonato has found ways to stay connected with the campus community electronically through a presidential newsletter and a new Instagram page, there are no plans of stopping there. 

“They’re talking about a podcast, they’re talking about some videos,” Bonato said. “We just talked yesterday about me doing a cooking thing, teaching students how to make sauce. Everyone has their own recipe. I have my own and cooking is one of the things that I do to relax, and I like it a lot… But just more and more social media. I don’t know if I’m ready for TikTok, but it is a place that young people go to. I’ll start to get in there somehow. I’ll need some training, but that could be a good thing too.”

For Bonato, the highlight of his role is getting to interact with students. In his tenure, the president’s favorite moment has been leading the graduation procession into Draddy Gymnasium – something he’s already looking forward to with the class of 2026. 

“I was so honored to lead a procession into our graduation at Draddy and seeing all the happy students and happy families – that’s what really makes it worth it for me, and that’s why I’m here, to see that and help people change their lives in a positive way,” Bonato said. “But that’s the place where you can feel it, and you could see it, and it’s just really exciting to me, and I’m looking forward to the next one.”

Bonato identified his biggest achievement in the role so far as “having people come together”. 

“Big organizations, including higher ed, can easily become siloed,” Bonato said. “It seems to be a natural thing that humans do, but I have to remind everyone, and myself, all the time that we are all in it together, and it doesn’t matter what your role is. If you’re a professor, you’re an assistant, you’re working in the cafeteria, it doesn’t matter, you’re all in this community together. Everybody plays a part, and I like to think I’ve helped people stop and think about that a little bit.”

Shields says she’s excited for Bonato to continue in this role, and feels that his experience will set up his office and the MU community for success. 

“Dr. Bonato’s experience both as an educator and administrator, he has experience with working with populations in transition, and I believe that with that experience, he’ll be able to, I like to use the term navigate, and be able to navigate us in a way that’s towards commerce ease and towards the horizon, and being able to start to anticipate what’s over the horizon to position our students for success,” Shields said.