Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing addressing the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Digital Network Technology Program Act (S. 414)

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing
specifically addressed the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA) Digital Network Technology Program Act (S. 414)
introduced by Senator Max Cleland, D Ga. The panelist at the hearing
discussed and examined ways to close the digital divide and the growing
technological disparity between minority serving institutions and state
and private universities.

There were two panels at the hearing. The first panel included Hon.
Williams Gray, III, President and CEO of the United Negro College Fund;
Dr. Antonio Flores, President Hispanic Association of Colleges and
Universities; Dr. Fredrick Humphries, President of the National
Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education; and Dr. Gerald
Monette, President, Turtle Mountain Community College and Chairman
Committee on Technology, American Indian Higher Education Consortium. The second panel included Dr. Juliet Garcia, President of University of Texas at Brownville and Texas Southmost College; Dr Marie McDemmond, President, Norfolk State University; Mr. George Sandoval, Network Administrator at Dine College, Arizona; Hon. Louis Sullivan, President Morehouse School of Medicine, Immediate Past President, Atlanta University Center Council of Presidents.

S. 414 is a legislation that provides grants within the Dept. of
Commerce to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI), tribal colleges and universities, and Native Hawaiian institutions of higher education $250 million to use to bridge the digital divide. The institutions can use the grants for computer acquisition, campus wiring, acquire advance network technologies, or train faculty and students. The bill fosters joint technology programs between the aforementioned institutions and profit or non-profit organizations to provide technological education and training. S. 414 also provides technological education to administrators, board members, and faculty of these institution to help increase their technological awareness which according to Dr. Antonio Flores, will help charge administrators and leaders with a technologically oriented strategic vision to enhance their technological infrastructure, training, and outreach.

What is the best means of disbursing the funds State or directly?
Speaking on behalf of the panelist, Hon Gray asserted that the best way
to disburse the funds was directly to the targeted institutions.
Historically, states have always been less than willing to aid MSIs and
overly partial to state and private institution. A direct and targeted
approach with specifications will achieve a better result than a
middleman approach. The middleman approach will subject the grants
objectives to different states interpretation.

The foremost barrier to the improvement of technological Infrastructures in the MSIs and tribal colleges is lack of funds. HBCUs and Tribal colleges do not have as much endowment as the private and state institutions. Without necessary funds, these institutions cannot purchase adequate services for their institutions. Among the tribal colleges, only one college has funding for high bandwidth connectivity, but it is not in place while other tribal colleges have access to a fractional T-1 connections. The colleges struggle to retain trained technicians, as the annual salary for faculty can be as low as $21,000.

HBCUs, MSIs, and tribal colleges can enormously benefit from
technological advances. Dr. Garcia called technological advances for MSIs and HBCUs "the great leveler." She remarked that University of Texas at Austin has 146 books per student compared to 17 books per student combining University of Texas, Brownsville and Southernmost College, Brownsville. With an advance Internet connection and improved
infrastructure, the library will build in two years a digital collection of books that would otherwise take 10 years to build in print. As for tribal colleges, advance connectivity will provide them a link to the outside world. People in the remotest part of the reservation can access the same information, communication, and distribution tools available to a New York City denizen.

The S.414 hearing would be incomplete without a discussion on how
satellite technology can help bridge the digital divide. Dr. Monette
informed the panel on the tribal colleges efforts to build a completely
wireless network infrastructure with adequate bandwidth within the
reservations and tribal colleges. The wireless infrastructure will
provide the colleges' ample bandwidth at a cheaper cost. Satellite
technology cuts across all barriers that have hindered the technological and economic growth of the reservations. Satellites are not hindered by remoteness or the physical connections. Less than 50% of homes on reservations have telephones compared to 95% nationally. Satellite Internet technology is evidently a way out of obscurity for the reservations as it lacks the basic physical infrastructure to connect to the world.

While speaking in support of the bill, Senator Allen, R. VA, noted
That income was a key feature of the digital divide and he advocated that a bill that would make the sale of PC's and its peripheral tax deductible for low-income families is needed. The entire panelists agreed that such a bill would effectively close the gap as less than 15% of the 55,000 students attending UNCF member colleges and universities own a computer. Hon. Gray added that "the confluence of these demographic factors make virtually certain that many UNCF students will have their first exposure to the Internet when they arrive on the college campus."

In conclusion, the hearing is a historical step along the way to
bridging the digital in America. Sen. Allen proposed bill would effectively help reduce the digital divide by providing an incentive for low-income families to own a PC while S. 414 will relatively provide minority-serving institution a leap forward.