The U.S. Senate has approved
a new $250 million federal program to address the digital divide at
historically Black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions and other minority-serving
universities, as part of a far-reaching higher education reform bill that also
simplifies the federal financial aid application.
The Senate added
the technology initiative to the Higher Education Act Amendments of 2007, a
bill that would target more funds for need-based financial aid as well as other
improvements in federal higher education policy. Through the new program,
minority-serving colleges could purchase hardware, software, wireless
technology, digital networks and other infrastructure. They also could use
proceeds to offer students universal access to campus networks.
Under debate on
Capitol Hill for much of the decade, the bill cleared the Senate with no
opposition. “It has been a long climb up the mountain,” says U.S. Sen. John
Warner, R-Va., a long-time proponent of the measure.
Warner says the
legislation meets an urgent need he first noticed in the 1980s when visiting Virginia’s
six HBCUs. “I noticed the absence of so much infrastructure in these struggling
institutions that other institutions had in abundance,” he says.
More than 200
HSIs, 100 HBCUs and 30 tribal colleges would be eligible for grants. The
measure still needs approval from the House of Representatives.
The MSI
provision was one of many amendments to the HEA
bill, which cleared the Senate by a 95-0 vote on Tuesday. Other changes in the
Senate HEA bill would:
