Latest news with #BipartisanInfrastructureLaw
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
'We want safety for all users' as finish nears for Greater Grand Forks' streets plan
Jun. 14—GRAND FORKS — The Grand Forks-East Grand Forks Metropolitan Planning Organization will be opening public comment on the final draft of its Safe Streets for All Plan on June 16. The plan has been in the works for more than a year to identify community needs, actionable steps and projects that Grand Forks and East Grand Forks can take to address traffic safety. The Safe Streets For All, or SS4A, plan isn't just one by the MPO, but a plan for which both cities applied and received a $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to conduct. "A lot of work has gone into this, everything from lots of conversations from various entities and organizations across the region, but also just a lot of engagement," Blue Weber of Bolton and Menk, one of the consultants helping with the plan, told the East Grand Forks City Council on June 10. "It's been a blast." The public will be able to leave comments on the plan's website: . Once adopted by both cities, the plan will open funding opportunities for safe street improvements, along with potentially making grant and other traffic funding applications stronger. The SS4A program was established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021, which set aside $5 billion in funds between 2022 and 2026 to reduce roadway deaths across the country. "An important part with the safety action plan with the SS4A funding is to try to bundle some of these projects," Weber told the Grand Forks City Council on June 9. "You never want to just go after one, because this is an awesome, huge pot of money that you really want to try to sell this story of implementing safety within your community." Since starting the plan in May 2024, seven public engagement events have been held to allow residents to comment on their priorities for traffic safety and to learn more about the plan. Those ranged from traditional open houses where people could take in information and ask questions to staff and consultants, to more interactive events, like a walking audit of 17th Avenue South in Grand Forks. Final adoption of the plan is proposed for sometime in July or August after public comment and both city councils have met in a joint meeting to provide their input. Another in-person engagement event is planned for later in June to allow for more comments. The plan is split into eight chapters and follows a format similar to other traffic plans that the MPO has created, like the 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan. It includes an overview of demographics, peer community reviews, how it was created, data and implementation strategies. Roads like 32nd Avenue South and Washington Street in Grand Forks and Bygland Road in East Grand Forks received some of the most comments from the public about potential improvements. Additionally, creating better pedestrian and bike connections across Greater Grand Forks was desired. "This is a community plan. This is not just something that MPO filed for themselves. Both the communities of East Grand Forks and Grand Forks really had to partake in this," Weber said in East Grand Forks. "One of the biggest things that came out of all our engagement with the community is we want safety for all users."
CNET
07-06-2025
- Politics
- CNET
82% of HBCUs Fight Internet Deserts: One Institution's Strategy for Change
Imagine trying to complete your senior research project without access to a stable internet connection. Or consider how difficult it might be to do work on a group project if you're constantly getting kicked off your Wi-Fi. That's the reality for many students at historically Black colleges and universities. Dr. Dwaun J. Warmack, president of Claflin University, shared a story about an email he received a few years ago from a student facing that very scenario. The student wrote: 'It is my prayer that Claflin's passion for education aligns with its compassion. I am currently typing my senior research paper at the local McDonald's that I drive to nine miles every day to do this work because my town doesn't have Wi-Fi bandwidth.' She said she would sit in the parking lot for four hours daily to work on her senior thesis. Shortly after receiving this email, Claflin University partnered with the Student Freedom Initiative to help provide students with broadband access. According to a 2021 McKinsey report, 82% of HBCUs are located in broadband deserts. These broadband deserts are areas that either severely lack access to adequate internet or have little internet at all. Despite this, broadband programs aimed at closing the digital divide in the US are currently in retreat. In May, President Donald Trump announced the termination of the Digital Equity Act, calling it 'racist' and 'unconstitutional.' This $2.75 billion program was part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law from 2021. It was established to help close the digital divide by increasing broadband adoption. This program was also essential to funding digital literacy initiatives for public schools and colleges, with some states and local governments already beginning to receive grant rewards. With the untimely end of the DEA, those funds never reached their destination. Locating local internet providers In 2020, students at Claflin University and the surrounding areas in Orangeburg, South Carolina, struggled with inadequate internet access because they lived in a broadband desert. 'The only way for students to actually get access to content was to come together in areas that provided [broadband] access, which created a problem,' said Keith Shoates, the president and CEO of the Student Freedom Initiative. He highlighted that at a time when students were supposed to be in quarantine, they were forced to come out of isolation and put themselves and their peers at risk just to do their schoolwork. The Student Freedom Initiative is a nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce the wealth gap through education. In 2023, SFI partnered with technology company Cisco, providing 5G internet service across campus. While the Orangeburg community still faces challenges from being in a broadband desert, Claflin University has since transformed its broadband desert into a thriving space for students. A long history of HBCUs in broadband deserts Access to an adequate internet connection equips students to do better in the classroom and beyond. But many HBCUs are in broadband deserts. These broadband deserts are located primarily in the Black Rural South of the US. According to a report from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the Black Rural South consists of more than 152 counties in 10 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. This information pretty much matches data from the Student Freedom Initiative. As seen from the map above, the Student Freedom Initiative currently works with more than 25 HBCUs in broadband deserts, all located along the Black Rural South in the US. These include Tuskegee University, Florida A&M University, Xavier University of Louisiana and Hampton University. Knowing the history of HBCUs helps one better understand these broadband deserts and how they exist. HBCUs are among the most underfunded institutions in the country because of the effects of historical and present-day systemic racism and practices like digital redlining. The term redlining dates back to the New Deal era in the 1930s when banks denied residents from 'at-risk' neighborhoods, predominantly from Black communities, to qualify for loans. During this era, government agencies created color-coded maps, highlighting which neighborhoods are least to most risky in terms of loan-worthiness. Digital redlining is a discriminatory practice that involves internet providers excluding their services in certain locations. If you take a look at a map, you can see the distinction between areas with broadband and those without. According to data from the US Census Bureau (PDF), residents in urban areas were more likely than those in rural areas to have broadband internet subscriptions. Moreover, more than 90% of households in the urban south had broadband access in 2021, versus 85% in the rural south. For example, Mississippi, New Mexico and West Virginia ranked the lowest in broadband access. US Census Bureau Although redlining has been illegal for quite some time, a form of digital redlining still exists, as seen by the lack of competition among internet providers in the Black Rural South. HBCUs are located in areas with inadequate broadband infrastructure and it doesn't help that these institutions are severely underfunded by at least $12 million in more than 15 states. According to a Brookings Metro report (PDF), 'HBCUs are chronically underfunded due to state underinvestment, lower alumni contributions (related to lower Black incomes and Black wealth), and lower endowments.' Plenty of studies have shown that low-income communities often lack access to adequate home broadband connections. The McKinsey report noted earlier also shows that more than 81% of HBCUs are in counties where the median wage is below the national average and, compared to non-HBCUs, are in areas where the projected job growth is below the national average. Why does this matter? Improving broadband infrastructure would not just benefit HBCUs or the millions of disconnected Americans in rural communities but could help the US economy at large. Broadband access for HBCUs could mobilize the economy There seems to be a wave of uncertainty regarding the country's current state of broadband programs. The Affordable Connectivity Program ended in May 2024, leaving more than 23 million households without access to affordable home internet and, with the recent news about the Digital Equity Act, disconnected Americans may rely on federal funds primarily from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. But states have run into delays in receiving those funds because of bureaucratic changes. Additionally, there could be further holdups in light of potential changes to the program from the new administration. According to some estimates, most states may not hear back on a timeline until June or July. Shoates emphasized SFI's commitment to helping students, regardless of where federal broadband programs stand in this country. 'We're still moving forward because the problem still exists,' Shoates said. He emphasized the significance of moving forward with non-federal sources to address the broadband gap for students. In addition to their partnership with Cisco in deploying 5G internet hotspots for Claflin University, SFI also connects these HBCUs to high-net-worth individuals, organizations and other philanthropists in their network. The Student Freedom Initiative was founded after Robert F. Smith, a philanthropist and Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, gave nearly $34 million to the graduating class of Morehouse College in 2019, paying off their student loans. Smith currently serves as SFI's chairman. Without the federal backbone support, nonprofit groups such as SFI will work with state legislatures and their corporate partners to keep the wheels moving. Still, eliminating or stalling federal funding from this equation will slow the reduction of the broadband gap. Warmack, Claflin's president, conveyed that federal broadband funding can really help, especially for severely underfunded institutions such as HBCUs. For example, Claflin University received a $2.9 million grant from the Connecting Minority Community Project through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which helped provide wireless internet on campus and in the surrounding areas. Shoates maintains that investing in HBCUs and improving their broadband infrastructure could potentially increase economic activity by half a trillion dollars, which would be reflected in the country's GDP. McKinsey According to data from McKinsey, a strong HBCU network could increase Black worker incomes by about $10 million, contribute at least $1.2 billion in incremental business profit, reduce student loan debt by $300 million and provide $1 billion in additional consumer expenditures. Broadband access and future student outcomes According to a 2021 report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy (PDF), 13% of Black students primarily use a tablet or cellphone to complete their coursework, compared to 8% of college students who do not. More than half of Black students who reported having unreliable internet connections complained about being able to access only some content online and or that it's difficult because of slow internet. From the 2021 report, Online Isn't Optional. Student Polling on Access to Internet and Devices. Institute of Higher Education Policy Yvette Thomas, SFI's program director of Institutional Transformation, said that HBCUs face persisting challenges because of the lack of high-speed broadband and the digital gap, which restricts students from accessing resources and online professional opportunities. Thomas spearheads the execution of HBCU capacity building, including modernizing the Information Technology infrastructure. 'When kids come to college, they usually come with at least five to six devices for the network and it slows the network down,' Thomas said. Without access to a high-speed internet connection, students can fall behind in the digital landscape, especially in the new era of artificial intelligence. 'There's gonna be this 26-mile marathon and they're gonna be on mile two … and that puts them at a competitive disadvantage,' Shoates said. He added that broadband access is imperative to students as it equips them with the proper digital literacy skills they need in the workforce. Claflin University has since transformed its broadband desert into a space that provides 5G internet for students but what about the other 82% of HBCUs still living in these internet deserts? Who's to say that there aren't others with similar experiences to that Claflin student driving to a McDonald's parking lot for Wi-Fi just to complete work? Without the federal backbone support, the work of SFI, its corporate partners and generous donations from philanthropists are vital to help reduce the broadband gap in the meantime.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The 5 Worst Green Energy Projects Funded by Biden
Despite the Department of Government Efficiency's failures to cut spending and the president's support for a bill that will add $2.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years, some wasteful government projects have been cut under the Trump administration. Energy Secretary Chris Wright recently canceled 24 grants approved by the Energy Department under former President Joe Biden. The action netted over $3 billion in savings. Earlier in May, Wright axed an additional $7 billion of green energy loans approved by Biden. Unfortunately for taxpayers, the savings that Wright has identified are only a drop in the bucket of the wasteful spending that the Biden Energy Department approved. Here are five of the most egregious examples: In December 2024, the Energy Department's Loan Programs Office (LPO) closed a $9.63 billion direct loan to BlueOval SK LLC, a joint venture between Ford and South Korean conglomerate SK On. The loan was approved to fund "the construction of three manufacturing plants, to produce batteries for Ford Motor Company's future Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles [E.V.s]," according to the award announcement. BlueOval has begun or completed construction for these facilities—one in western Tennessee called BlueOval City—and two in Hardin County, Kentucky, known as Kentucky 1 and 2. In addition to allocating millions of dollars in tax credits for the rights to house BlueOval City, the Tennessee Legislature also created the Megasite Authority of West Tennessee, reports Reason's Joe Lancaster. The board was granted the authority to execute contracts on behalf of development, which includes the power to seize private property through eminent domain. In most cases, the board lowballed local property owners, including Ray Jones, who was offered "a measly $8,165" for his acre of land, even though the going rate was $200,000 per acre. There is no set date for when the plant will open. Kentucky 1 has faced numerous occupational safety and health complaints from its workers. A review from The Courier-Journal found "dozens of workplace injuries; hospitalizations related to respiratory issues; unshakeable mold contamination; a bat-infested training facility; blocked emergency exit doors; and chemical exposure risks." The state has opened investigations into the plant, which is scheduled to begin production later this year. Kentucky 2's opening has been indefinitely delayed. Michael Adams, CEO of BlueOval SK, recently told WDRB, that the plant's opening date will be a market decision, but "the market is telling us that Kentucky 2 is not ready." The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021 created a new office within the Energy Department called the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), whose goal is to finance first-of-a-kind clean energy projects through private-public partnerships. One of the largest beneficiaries of the program has been Exxon Mobil. The oil major was awarded a $332 million grant from OCED to "enable the use of hydrogen in place of natural gas" at a textile and plastics facility in Baytown, Texas. At the time of the announcement, the Biden administration said the project would prevent 2.7 million metric tons of carbon emissions per year. While an interesting technology, the project did not need taxpayer support. In the same year that Exxon received this disbursement (2024), the company reported annual earnings of $33.7 billion. The project's funding was canceled on May 30 by Wright. No industry was spared from corporate welfare under the Biden administration, including condiments. In October 2024, Kraft Heinz was awarded a grant of up to $170.9 million from OCED. The award was intended to fund energy efficiency upgrades, the installation of heat pumps and electric boilers, and renewable energy technologies at 10 of the company's facilities. The grant was also rescinded on May 30. Kraft Heinz says it will continue to invest in upgrading 30 of its manufacturing facilities and will invest $3 billion over the next five years "to modernize" its domestic supply chain infrastructure. In October 2024, the LPO announced a $2.26 billion direct loan to Lithium Nevada Corp., a subsidiary of Lithium Americas Corp., to build facilities to produce lithium carbonate—a critical component of E.V. batteries. The facilities will be sited next to and get their lithium from Thacker Pass, a mine site in Nevada that is estimated to hold the largest lithium reserves in the world. The U.S. largely relies on imports to meet its lithium needs. These facilities could reduce this dependence, but that doesn't mean the loan isn't wasteful. The demand for lithium, and lithium-carbonate, is expected to significantly climb in the next few decades as the use of green technologies increases. In 2024 alone, demand for the metal grew by 30 percent. Lithium Americas expects the mine, which began construction in February, to generate $2.2 billion per year in annual earnings. Taxpayers don't need to spend billions of dollars to support a project that the market seems to think will be successful. One of the largest steel makers in the U.S. was another beneficiary of Biden-era federal funding. In 2024, Cleveland-Cliffs, which generated $19.2 billion in revenue that year, was awarded up to $575 million in grants (which are still active) from the Energy Department. One of these awards, worth up to $500 million, would implement hydrogen fuel into the steel making process and install two electric melting furnaces at the company's Middletown Works facility in Ohio. The project is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the plant by 1 million tons per year and received a $9.5 million disbursement in September 2024. A second grant worth up to $75 million would electrify Cleveland-Cliffs' facility in Butler, Pennsylvania, which produces steel for transforms, motors, and generators. This project got a $19 million disbursement in August 2024. The company says these projects are expected to be live before 2030. While Wright has canceled some of the most wasteful projects approved under Biden, federal backing for favored energy projects isn't going to end under the Trump administration. The Washington Free Beacon reports that the Energy Department is considering financing a $44 billion pipeline in Alaska. The post The 5 Worst Green Energy Projects Funded by Biden appeared first on
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Will NHTSA's Anti-Drunk-Driving Tech Mandate Survive 2025?
Back in January 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) calling for a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) that would mandate impaired-driving detection systems in every new passenger vehicle sold in the United States. Born from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (passed in late 2021), the proposal aimed to combat the 13,000-plus annual deaths caused by alcohol-impaired driving with passive detection systems built directly into cars. Now it's June 2025 and we're still waiting. Eighteen thousand public comments later, with no clear implementation update. No final rule. No rollout plan. Just a quick review behind the scenes as political priorities shift in Washington. The timing couldn't be more uncertain. President Donald Trump, now returned to office, has a deeply personal disdain for alcohol due to the death of his brother, Fred Trump, Jr., who in 1981 at the age of 42, died from a heart attack caused by his alcohol use. President Trump has also championed deregulation and railed against federal overreach in the private sector. The question now hanging over this initiative is: Will his administration kill the mandate, slow-walk it or push forward with modifications? NHTSA's early 2024 filing didn't propose a specific technology. It proposed a performance standard. This would allow automakers to choose from a range of solutions: Breath-based alcohol interlocks. Touch sensors. Driver monitoring systems using cameras. Behavioral analytics for drowsiness or distraction. NHTSA even broadened the scope beyond alcohol. its notice expanded coverage to include drowsy and distracted driving, arguably more common and complicated to regulate. This drew both praise and criticism. Critics argued that detection methods for drowsiness and distraction vary too widely to be regulated with a one-size-fits-all mandate. Right now, NHTSA is in the rule review phase. With a presidential transition, it's unclear whether the proposal will move forward. Key issues include: Cost to OEMs and consumers. False positives and liability concerns. Privacy and surveillance fears. Implementation feasibility by 2026. Although GM publicly stated it's ready to implement impairment-detection tech, other manufacturers have been quieter. As of mid-2025, no formal regulation has been issued — just public comment summaries, stakeholder meetings and ongoing reviews. While the proposed FMVSS applies only to new passenger vehicles, fleets should monitor the regulatory horizon. CDL holders face stricter standards than the general public. Under 49 CFR 392.5, a CDL driver operating a vehicle over 26,001 pounds can be put out of service for any detectable alcohol. The Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) limit for commercial drivers is 0.04%, half that of the general public. Any measurable alcohol during on-duty status, even if below 0.04, can lead to immediate enforcement action. As detection systems evolve, especially as litigation pressures grow, fleets may face pressure to adopt similar tech voluntarily. Dashcams, biometric sensors and driver wellness programs are already laying the groundwork. The insurance market may not wait for a mandate. The future of this rule rests on three pivots: Will NHTSA push a final rule before the 2026 target implementation date? Will the Trump administration support, delay or strike it down? Will automakers begin adopting the tech regardless, due to liability and market pressure? There's no clear answer yet. What is clear is that drunk driving deaths are still rising, and both the public and private sectors are actively seeking solutions. Whether this takes the form of federal mandates, OEM-led features or fleet-driven initiatives, the road to real-time impairment detection is already paved; it's just a question of who gets there first and how. We may be watching the beginning of one of the most controversial vehicle safety regulations in decades or the quiet death of another ambitious government mandate. Either way, fleets and safety managers would do well to prepare, because the margin for error in impaired driving is evaporating fast and technology is watching. The post Will NHTSA's Anti-Drunk-Driving Tech Mandate Survive 2025? appeared first on FreightWaves.
CNET
04-06-2025
- Business
- CNET
The Top Black Colleges in the Country Are Still Living in Internet Deserts. Here's What to Know
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Dwaun J. Warmack, president of Claflin University, received an email from a student who had left campus and returned home to quarantine. The student wrote: 'It is my prayer that Claflin's passion for education aligns with its compassion.' 'I am currently typing my senior research paper at the local McDonald's that I drive to nine miles every day to do this work because my town doesn't have Wi-Fi bandwidth,' the student wrote. She said she would sit in the parking lot for four hours daily to work on her senior thesis. Shortly after receiving this email, Claflin University partnered with the Student Freedom Initiative to help provide students with broadband access. Broadband programs aimed at closing the digital divide in the US are currently in retreat but according to a 2021 McKinsey report, the 82% of Historically Black Colleges and Universities situated in broadband deserts aren't going anywhere. Broadband deserts are areas that either severely lack access to adequate or have no internet. Locating local internet providers In May, President Donald Trump announced the termination of the Digital Equity Act (DEA), calling it 'racist' and 'unconstitutional.' This $2.75 billion program was part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law from 2021. It was established to help close the digital divide by increasing broadband adoption. This program was also essential to funding digital literacy initiatives for public schools and colleges, with some states and local governments already beginning to receive grant rewards. With the untimely end of the DEA, those funds never reached their destination. In 2020, students at Claflin University and the surrounding areas in Orangeburg, South Carolina, struggled with inadequate internet access because they lived in a broadband desert. 'The only way for students to actually get access to content was to come together in areas that provided [broadband] access, which created a problem,' said Keith Shoates, the president and CEO of the Student Freedom Initiative. He highlighted that at a time when students were supposed to be in quarantine, they were forced to come out of isolation and put themselves and their peers at risk, just to do their schoolwork. The Student Freedom Initiative is a nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce the wealth gap through education. In 2023, SFI partnered with technology company Cisco, providing 5G internet service across campus. While the Orangeburg community still faces challenges from being in a broadband desert, Claflin University has since transformed its broadband desert into a thriving space for students. A long history of HBCUs in broadband deserts Access to an adequate internet connection equips students to do better in the classroom and beyond. But many HBCUs are in broadband deserts. These broadband deserts are located primarily in the Black Rural South of the US. According to a report from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the Black Rural South consists of more than 152 counties in 10 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. This information pretty much matches data from the Student Freedom Initiative. As seen from the map above, the Student Freedom Initiative currently works with more than 25 HBCUs in broadband deserts, all located along the Black Rural South in the US. These include Tuskegee University, Florida A&M University, Xavier University of Louisiana and Hampton University. Knowing the history of HBCUs helps one better understand these broadband deserts and how they exist. HBCUs are among the most underfunded institutions in the country, because of the effects of historical and present-day systemic racism and practices like digital redlining. The term redlining dates back to the New Deal era in the 1930s when banks denied residents from 'at-risk' neighborhoods, predominantly from Black communities, to qualify for loans. During this era, government agencies created color-coded maps, highlighting which neighborhoods are least to most risky in terms of loan-worthiness. Digital redlining is a discriminatory practice that involves internet providers excluding their services in certain locations. If you take a look at a map, you can see the distinction between areas with broadband and those without. According to data from the US Census Bureau (PDF), residents in urban areas were more likely than those in rural areas to have broadband internet subscriptions. Moreover, more than 90% of households in the urban south had broadband access in 2021, versus 85% in the rural south. For example, Mississippi, New Mexico and West Virginia ranked the lowest in broadband access. US Census Bureau Although redlining has been illegal for quite some time, a form of digital redlining still exists, as seen by the lack of competition among internet providers in the Black Rural South. HBCUs are located in areas with inadequate broadband infrastructure and it doesn't help that these institutions are severely underfunded by at least $12 million in more than 15 states. According to a Brookings Metro report (PDF), 'HBCUs are chronically underfunded due to state underinvestment, lower alumni contributions (related to lower Black incomes and Black wealth), and lower endowments.' Plenty of studies have shown that low-income communities often lack access to adequate home broadband connections. The McKinsey report noted earlier also shows that more than 81% of HBCUs are in counties where the median wage is below the national average and, compared to non-HBCUs, are in areas where the projected job growth is below the national average. Why does this matter? Improving broadband infrastructure would not just benefit HBCUs or the millions of disconnected Americans in rural communities but could help the US economy at large. Broadband access for HBCUs could mobilize the economy There seems to be a wave of uncertainty regarding the country's current state of broadband programs. The Affordable Connectivity Program ended in May 2024, leaving more than 23 million households without access to affordable home internet and, with the recent news about the Digital Equity Act, disconnected Americans may rely on federal funds primarily from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. But states have run into delays in receiving those funds because of bureaucratic changes. Additionally, there could be further holdups in light of potential changes to the program from the new administration. According to some estimates, most states may not hear back on a timeline until June or July. Shoates emphasized SFI's commitment to helping students, regardless of where federal broadband programs stand in this country. 'We're still moving forward because the problem still exists,' Shoates said. He emphasized the significance of moving forward with non-federal sources to address the broadband gap for students. In addition to their partnership with Cisco in deploying 5G internet hotspots for Claflin University, SFI also connects these HBCUs to high-net-worth individuals, organizations and other philanthropists in their network. The Student Freedom Initiative was founded after Robert F. Smith, a philanthropist and Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, gave nearly $34 million to the graduating class of Morehouse College in 2019, paying off their student loans. Smith currently serves as SFI's chairman. Without the federal backbone support, nonprofit groups such as SFI will work with state legislatures and their corporate partners to keep the wheels moving. Still, eliminating or stalling federal funding from this equation will slow the reduction of the broadband gap. Warmack, Claflin's president, conveyed that federal broadband funding can really help, especially for severely underfunded institutions such as HBCUs. For example, Claflin University received a $2.9 million grant from the Connecting Minority Community Project through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which helped provide wireless internet on campus and in the surrounding areas. Shoates maintains that investing in HBCUs and improving their broadband infrastructure could potentially increase economic activity by half a trillion dollars, which would be reflected in the country's GDP. McKinsey According to data from McKinsey, a strong HBCU network could increase Black worker incomes by about $10 million, contribute at least $1.2 billion in incremental business profit, reduce student loan debt by $300 million and provide $1 billion in additional consumer expenditures. Broadband access and future student outcomes According to a 2021 report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy (PDF), 13% of Black students primarily use a tablet or cellphone to complete their coursework, compared to 8% of college students who do not. More than half of Black students who reported having unreliable internet connections complained about being able to access only some content online and or that it's difficult because of slow internet. From the 2021 report, Online Isn't Optional. Student Polling on Access to Internet and Devices. Institute of Higher Education Policy Yvette Thomas, SFI's program director of Institutional Transformation, said that HBCUs face persisting challenges because of the lack of high-speed broadband and the digital gap, which restricts students from accessing resources and online professional opportunities. Thomas spearheads the execution of HBCU capacity building, including modernizing the Information Technology infrastructure. 'When kids come to college, they usually come with at least five to six devices for the network and it slows the network down,' Thomas said. Without access to a high-speed internet connection, students can fall behind in the digital landscape, especially in the new era of artificial intelligence. 'There's gonna be this 26-mile marathon and they're gonna be on mile two … and that puts them at a competitive disadvantage,' Shoates said. He added that broadband access is imperative to students as it equips them with the proper digital literacy skills they need in the workforce. Claflin University has since transformed its broadband desert into a space that provides 5G internet for students but what about the other 82% of HBCUs still living in these internet deserts? Who's to say that there aren't others with similar experiences to that Claflin student driving to a McDonald's parking lot for Wi-Fi just to complete work? Without the federal backbone support, the work of SFI, its corporate partners and generous donations from philanthropists are vital to help reduce the broadband gap in the meantime.
