The Minority Serving-Cyberinfrastructure Consortium (MS-CC), in partnership with Internet2 and Waymark Analytics, is actively surveying presidents, administrative leaders, IT groups, faculty, and staff at nearly 485 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). The goal of the survey is to collect a critical data set for guiding priorities and enabling collaborative initiatives and imperative cyberinfrastructure improvements that may also require funding and grants. Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) are conducting a similar survey through an effort led in partnership with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.
The survey development, spearheaded by MS-CC leadership, Dr. Deborah Dent, Chief Information Officer for Jackson State University, and Dr. Damian Clarke, Chief Information Officer for Alabama A&M University. It grew from the consortium’s commitment to three main goals for enabling minority-serving institutions and organizations to accomplish together what would be more difficult to do separately:
- Increasing access to cyberinfrastructure resources
- Enhancing interactions and effectiveness among researchers and cyberinfrastructure professionals
- Professional/career and workforce development