Bridging the Digital Divide–Connecting Minority Students Grant

UMass Boston has always been strongly committed to serving and supporting a student body that’s as diverse as the community surrounding it, so Ray Lefebvre, Chief Information Officer, was elated when he learned that UMass Boston had been awarded a Connecting Minority Communities Grant from the US Department of Commerce in the amount of $2.97 million dollars over two years. The grant, part of a larger federal initiative called Internet for All,  is designed to give universities in mostly urban areas the means to provide or broaden digital access to historically underserved communities.  

The university learned firsthand the problems our community had with internet access during the pandemic, when classes could only be held remotely. It soon became obvious that some UMass Boston students couldn’t access their remote classes nearly as well as students from more suburban universities or those with smaller minority populations. The university responded quickly by establishing the Chromebook loaner program that is still active today, but while it was helpful it couldn’t help address the overall problem of digital accessibility. However, as VP for Research Bala Sundaram describes, the two-year, $2.97 million federal grant has become what is now colloquially known as a game-changer.  

Bala said that while students are being provided with new devices as a part of this grant, it is just a very small piece of how the funding is being allocated. A far more holistic program has been conceived that engages several community partners, with creative solutions being applied in several areas. For example, Verizon was enlisted to help with bandwidth and connectivity issues the local community was having, even for people with standard quality computers. Verizon donated what they call “jet packs” that allow users to create internet hotspots in their homes, and the grant pays the $15 a month subscription cost that allows unlimited access to the internet, with the 1st 25 gigabits at 4G speeds and the remainder at 3G speeds. This, as Bala put it, “is not Tesla speed,
but still pretty good.”  

Yet when elaborating on the grant Bala points out that it has two main purposes. Yes, the communications piece, or “bridging the digital divide” is important, but another goal is to “create career awareness in the IT space.” In other words, minorities have typically been underrepresented in the IT career field, and the grant funding in part will be directed toward increasing minority participation in the IT workforce. “There are projections of skills and workforce gaps, so there’s a workforce diversity component to this as well,” Bala said.  

For Bala and Apurva though, the best way they can get the most from this grant can be summed up with the word “sustainability.” This means that when they report back to the Commerce Department that they can show that the funding did not go towards quick, short-term fixes. Instead, the goal is to implement large scale improvements to the entire digital infrastructure of the community. 

Apurva pointed out that the initial phase of the grant “is a pilot program,” aiming to work with 150 members spread across four minority communities: African American (Dorchester), Asian American (Chinatown), Latino (Chelsea), Native American (Canton), and another 100 Pell Grant eligible minority students from UMass Boston. The opportunity exists to apply for more funding after two years if they can show what’s being implemented now can be expanded and improved upon down the road. Given the stewardship Bala and Apurva have demonstrated with this funding thus far, there can be little doubt that UMass Boston’s long-term prospects with this grant will be successful, and our minority communities can truly become more connected in our digital world.