WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) applauds the re-introduction of the Minority Serving Institution Digital & Wireless Network Technology Opportunity Act of 2005 to the 109th Congress by Senator George Allen of Virginia.

A press conference was held today at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., to announce the introduction of this bill. HACU representatives included Louis Caldera, President of the University of New Mexico, Main Campus, and current HACU Governing Board member, as well as Jose Vicente, President of Miami Dade College, North Campus, and former HACU Governing Board member.

HACU called for swift passage of the bill that would provide grants for new technology equipment and infrastructure expansion, as well as new faculty development, classroom technology, training, technology partnership and technology education leadership development opportunities for eligible HSIs and other Minority-Serving Institutions.

“The rapidly changing global economy and national security priorities require the elimination of the ‘digital divide’ in our country, particularly on college campuses,” said HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores.

While all sectors of society are acquiring greater access to information technology and connectivity to the Internet, the gap between the better educated and those behind them is widening each year. The U.S. Department of Commerce series of reports, “Falling Through the Net,” and “A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet,” documents the divide between Hispanics and whites and Hispanics and the nation as a whole. The 2000 report, the last reporting on households, notes that more than one half of U.S. households have computers and more than four of every ten have Internet access. For Hispanic households, the numbers are only one-third and about two of every ten, respectively.

This same report documents that in 2000 Hispanics made almost 27% less individual use of the Internet than non-Hispanic whites. In the latest 2001 report the gap grew to over 28%. In short, Hispanics are slowly increasing computer and Internet access, but the digital divide between them and the rest of the nation’s population is getting wider rather than narrow.

Because of this persisting gap in access to technology, Flores said, “Senator Allen’s bill is critical to provide federal assistance to HSIs and other Minority-Serving Institutions, so that they may be able to strengthen their information-technology infrastructure and institutional capacity and prepare an increasingly diverse workforce for the technology demands of the present and future.”

Senator Allen had introduced a similar measure in the 108^th Congress which passed the Senate 97-0, but stalled in the House.