These HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs Are Getting Federal Grants for Tech Accessibility

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program is working to transform historically Black college and universities (HBCUs), tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), and minority-serving institutions (MSIs) through grants to expand broadband internet access.

HBCU Virginia State University (VSU) is one of the latest schools that will receive a grant from NTIA. The Petersburg, Virginia, university announced in January it would use the $2.2 million grant to boost high-speed internet on campus.

“Achieving digital equity and inclusion is one of the major social justice challenges of our time,” said Dr. Dawit Haile, dean of VSU’s college of engineering. “It is essential to economic development, educational advancement, job attainment, and general health and well-being. Since access inequality is correlated to income inequality, any successful broadband expansion effort will address both access and affordability.”

Last Updated: February 7, 2023 at 11:49 A.M. EST

*Courtesy of National Telecommunications and Information Administration

The Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program’s mission is to expand internet broadband and technology access and hire and train information technology staff for HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs.

Despite the Dec. 1, 2021, deadline to apply, the NTIA is still reviewing more than 170 applications and will announce grant winners as they progress through the program’s end in November 2024.

The $268 million Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program grant has awarded $139.4 million (52%) to 49 schools as of February 2023.

Colleges may choose how to spend their grant money.

In December 2022, HBCU Lincoln University (LU) in Missouri used its grant of almost $3 million to create LU Connects, which will provide students with Chromebooks, USB drives, mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, and a full-time student technology coordinator. It will also help improve on-campus Wi-Fi access points and upgrade more than 40 classrooms for distance learning access.

BestColleges previously reported that the largest number of school programs to benefit from the award will focus on digital literacy skills and workforce training/economic growth.

“We need to recognize the role that persistent poverty plays in people’s abilities to access and use the internet,” Eldon Burton, VSU assistant vice president for government relations, said in a press release.

“At Virginia State University, 69% of students are designated as low-income and first-generation college students; therefore, student access to quality broadband is limited. This funding allows VSU, as an access and opportunity university, to continue to bridge the gap for our community and our students.”