College Fund To Support Tribal Colleges High Performance Computing Initiative

American Indian College Fund
Saturday, 1 April 2000

New effort will focus on connectivity, hardware and software & funding needs at tribal colleges and universities

DENVER, CO. (April, 2000)-A critical new initiative will bring the dot.com revolution that is transforming the nation's economy to remote American Indian reservations where typically half the households don't even have a telephone.

The nation's tribal colleges and universities are launching the Tribal Colleges High Performance Computing Initiative--an unprecedented public-private partnership designed to bring modern technology to these remote colleges and the Indian reservations they serve.

Tribal Colleges' Technology Needs

- Few resources. Financially-strapped tribal colleges have immediate needs for at least 1,000 new-generation computers and related software.

- Connectivity. For adequate research and data flow, most U.S. colleges prefer access to T-3 lines. Only one tribal college has this access. Less than 50 percent of tribal colleges have access to smaller T-1 lines. And this access is very sporadic.

- Internet degrees. Even though they serve remote tribes, only 2 of 32 colleges currently offer degrees via distance learning courses over the Internet.

- E-mail. Many tribal colleges aren't networked to provide e-mail and other services.

- Personnel. Tribal colleges struggle to hire and retain technicians. Often, they can't afford to hire outside experts.

The project will give tribal colleges technology to link them to global resources. The target result? New jobs on reservations with unemployment rates as high as 85 percent.

"If Indian people don't join the information revolution, they are going to be left behind like they've been left behind so many times before," said Tom Davis, president of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College in Wisconsin. "That's not right. Our country can do better than that."

Located in 12 states, tribal colleges provide access to higher education for people who otherwise would have none. The Tribal Colleges High Performance Computing Initiative will focus on three key areas: improving connectivity, meeting critical hardware and software needs, and a holding a Fall 2000 funders conference to support the effort.

Plans call for "virtual library" technology to bring a world of books to half-filled libraries. In poor, isolated communities, e-commerce can create new jobs. The Internet could deliver many courses on-line, while helping to preserve endangered tribal cultures.

But most of the tribal colleges do not yet have sufficient computers, connectivity or software to make this vision a reality.

"The tribal colleges cannot train workers for the modern marketplace without the latest technology," said Richard Williams, executive director of the American Indian College Fund. "Further, the colleges can't attract new business to Indian reservations without reliable, modern connectivity."

On the Navajo Reservation, Diné College is pioneering state-of-the-art "access grid" technology to link students to the outside world. But school technicians must use borrowed T-1 lines, a technological rarity in the isolated Southwest. T-1 lines provide the most minimum data flow required by higher education needs.

In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Bay Mills Community College is building a virtual library to provide free access to nationwide information and resources.

Bay Mills' partners are IBM Corp. and the University of Michigan. Diné is working with the Albuquerque High Performance Computing Center at the University of New Mexico. Other tribal colleges are struggling to find similar resources.

Typically, the colleges are housed in makeshift campuses. With few resources, these institutions have struggled to build safe, up-to-date facilities. Other factors such as great distances have made it extremely difficult to offer state-of-the-art technology to Indian students.

Tribal Colleges High Performance Computing Initiative

- Jobs. Modern technology can help remote tribal colleges deliver marketable job skills, produce workers, and attract business to Indian reservations with high unemployment rates.

- Virtual library. For financially-strapped Indian colleges with half-filled libraries, create free access to nationwide information that will expand resources and learning.

- Distance learning. Bridge remote distances by increasing Internet courses and by using new, two-way communication.

- Funding conference. With public and private support, tribal colleges develop a plan to build, and pay for, new technology. It will be held during the last quarter of this year.

Internet access is limited. Despite being the largest and oldest tribal college, Diné College has only partial, or "fractional," access to T-1 lines. The isolated college also must rely on satellite connections for some Internet access.

"We know that speed of technology doubles every 18 months," said Davis, who chairs the tribal colleges' technology task force. "In order for more than 30 different tribal colleges to keep up with the pace, we must jump at least a generation ahead of the current technology."

Davis says the colleges have an immediate need for at least 1,000 new-generation computers and technology. Generating new business on Indian reservations will require greater Internet connectivity than what most colleges now have, he says. Less than half of the tribal colleges have access to T-1 lines, which provide minimal high-speed access. Major universities prefer access to much larger T-3 (or DS-3) lines. But only one tribal college has T-3 access.

Tribal colleges already are working with corporate partners on projects such as customer-service call centers to respond to company customers.

Despite limited telephone service and other basic needs, tribal college leaders say technology can push the schools to the leading edge of research, shared scientific supercomputing networks and emerging Internet communication.

Technology, they say, can help create much-needed employment. But it can also do more. By helping tribes find solutions to modern problems, technology can further the very survival of American Indian people.

Now, Diné College is building two-way video, voice and data connections to link remote campuses in Shiprock, N.M., (left) and Tsaile, Ariz. (right). Called "access grid," this new, Internet-based technology allows real-time collaboration among unlimited sites nationwide. However, this leading-edge communication requires very high-speed connectivity that very few tribal colleges now have access to.

For more information, or to contact American Indian College Fund, see their website at: www.collegefund.org