At Clark Atlanta, a historically Black college (HBCU), Morris, a chemistry student, handwrote chemical orders and physically pushed paperwork through the procurement process to get what she needed. At Emory, which is not historically Black, the process was fully digital. As a biochemistry grad student, she could walk to an on-site chemical store, provide her lab number and get materials.
“It was like I went from what I thought was the year 2000 into the future, but that wasn’t the future,” she said. “That was really the year 2000, and here we are at our HBCU back in the year 1983.”
She’s now a professor and the first metaversity director at Morehouse College, also an HBCU, and she’s seen how her experience reflects a broader, long-standing digital divide.
21ST-CENTURY PROBLEM WITH 19TH-CENTURY ROOTS
The first HBCU was formed in 1837, when education for enslaved Americans was illegal. Following the Civil War, more education institutions emerged, many funded by land grants. As a result, many HBCUs are in the South and in rural areas. These regions overlap with broadband deserts — areas that lack adequate, affordable Internet service.
“Class is online, every material and every homework,” said Jeff Choi, chief information officer at Wilberforce University, an HBCU in rural Ohio.
Fort Valley State University (FVSU), an HBCU, sits in a more rural part of Georgia and was established by a land grant. Ndidi Akuta, FVSU chief information officer, said even when the need is clear, the math may not be in the eyes of Internet service providers (ISPs).
“If you already have analog Internet, analog telephones or DSL, that’s already run and is making you money, the cost to trench and buy fiber and run it for that far may far exceed […] you making money,” Akuta said. “Turning a profit may be difficult.”
Historical underfunding can also play a role in infrastructure deficits. HBCUs typically do not have large endowments that enable the flexibility to upgrade quickly and continually. For example, the market value of Morehouse’s endowment in 2024 was $263 million. Neighboring institutions’ endowments were valued much higher: Georgia Institute of Technology’s was $3 billion and Emory’s was $11 billion.
Although HBCU alumni give generously, Black Americans tend to have less wealth than white Americans with similar levels of education, making this a less reliable source of funding than at some other schools.
FVSU.edu
FINDING THE FUNDING
As technology changes, finding funding to update broadband infrastructure grows more critical. Students are coming to school with more devices — Akuta expects up to 10 per person these days — and those devices have more capabilities. To handle the changes, fiber is the standard, he said.
FVSU’s main campus has long operated with fiber connections thanks to PeachNet, a statewide communications network for schools in the University of Georgia system. PeachNet acquired nearly 2,000 miles of fiber, helping 26 of the system’s 35 schools lease fiber at a lower cost.
However, the fiber didn’t reach FVSU’s second campus, and the difference was stark. Users on that campus could only reach 10 mbps, which works for basic tasks like email and browsing, but struggles with multiple connections, video streaming and gaming.
Akuta worked hard to find an ISP to fill this gap. The school ran 1.8 miles of fiber to increase capacity to 5 gbps, 500 times faster than the previous system.
“It took two-and-a-half years for somebody to even take me up on my offer to run that fiber,” he said. “Now, we’re reaping the benefits of it.”
Private-public partnerships like these have helped some HBCUs update broadband access. Coppin State University in Baltimore partnered with network provider C1 this year to update their system, which was at end of life. The Student Freedom Initiative, a nonprofit focused on affordable education, partnered with Cisco in 2021 to provide $150 million to HBCUs across the country for broadband updates.
Federal grants have also helped HBCUs address this divide. In 2023, Wilberforce received a $2 million grant through the Connecting Minority Communities (CMC) program. The $268 million grant program launched in 2021 has awarded grants to 43 HBCUs to improve broadband capacity on campus and in surrounding communities.
Choi said the grant helped upgrade campus access points to ensure reliable and safe Internet in residence halls. It also provided hardware like smart screens in classrooms and laptops with integrated LTE Wi-Fi for 200 students.
“Every meeting I go to with the students the last several years, they were complaining about Internet,” he said, “but in the last two years, I got nothing.”
Grants like these are especially helpful for updating broadband infrastructure because it is costly and complicated.
“The large chunks help because we’ve been underfunded in that area for so long,” said John Oliver, project manager for the Charlotte Inclusive Technology Innovation Pilot Program (CITIP) at Johnson C. Smith University, an HBCU in Charlotte, N.C.
LIFE WHEN THE INTERNET WORKS WELL
At Coppin, a strong Internet connection is the norm. Even before their partnership with C1 to update the network, satisfaction with Internet on campus was north of 83 percent, Chief Information Officer Dionne Curbeam said.
A strong vision, coordinated teams and vendor partnerships have helped the school be proactive rather than reactive, she said.
Not only do students and staff not have to worry about Internet disruptions, but they can also look forward to the next big things, like virtual reality and artificial intelligence. They’ve already launched a campus chatbot and hosted VR pop-ups.
“Imagine what we could accomplish if we had parity and equity of resources everywhere,” Oliver said.
With strong broadband access on campus, HBCUs can look outward to their communities. The schools can serve as anchor institutions, providing resources that address the overall issue of broadband deserts nationwide.
A $4 million CMC grant to Coppin helped establish Connect Eagle Nation, a program delivering devices to nearby low-income households and providing digital skills training. The technology pilot program at Johnson C. Smith University, similarly established by a CMC grant, makes upgrades on campus and in Charlotte’s Historic West End area.
“Without access to Internet, we’re leaving a whole generation, a whole community, behind,” Coppin’s Curbeam said. “Forget stuff like AI, you can’t even apply for a job nowadays without going online.”
Coppin.edu
WHAT HBCUs NEED
Leaders say to continue to address these gaps, it will take big investments on the government and business side rather than small funding infusions.
State and federal programs specifically earmarked for broadband infrastructure development at HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions are paramount for closing the digital equity gap, HBCU leaders say. Large-sum grants like those from the CMC program have been game-changers for some HBCU campuses.
“But before we received the grant and upgraded the entire network, we were really struggling,” Choi said.
Similarly, strong, lasting public-private partnerships with technology companies and Internet providers could also help. When updating the network at Wilberforce, Choi ensured the contract with the ISP was covered for five years, even though the grant period was only two years. He wanted that three-year buffer to find additional funding sources for the fast broadband students expect, but also to form a relationship with the vendor.
“Don’t come for just one donation and a photo op,” Morehouse’s Morris said. “Stay for a little while and stand up an AT&T Learning Center or Smart Hub or something that is central to the campus that can benefit these HBCUs.”
Just as HBCUs are sharing resources with their communities, Morris said colleges and universities could form consortiums to share technology resources. That way, students wouldn’t experience the shock she did seeing the disparity of resources between schools just a few miles from each other.
“Those are ways that you could actually move the needle and make it more equitable without disrupting an entire financial system,” Morris said.
This story originally appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of Government Technology. Click here to view the full digital edition online.
