Senate hearing held on technology aid for minority-serving institutions - tech briefs - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, March 28, 2002 by Ronald Roach

WASHINGTON

Several educators and policy-makers testified before a U.S. Senate committee last month on the need for proposed legislation that seeks to provide $250 million in grants to minority-serving institutions to help them bridge the "digital divide in higher education."

Originally introduced in February 2001, the NTIA Digital Network Technology Program Act would authorize grants to minority-serving institutions nationwide to upgrade technology infrastructure, to provide educational services for technology degrees, to provide educator training and to implement technology projects in conjunction with government agencies, among other purposes. U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., is the bill's primary sponsor.

"Together we can erase the digital divide at all of our institutions of higher learning and give each of our citizens the chance to do his or her unique and distinctive thing," Cleland said in a statement.

Among those who testified were Dr. Louis Sullivan of the Morehouse School of Medicine; William H. Gray III, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund; and Dr. Marie McDemmond, president of Norfolk State University.