Stillman College Receives $2.7M To Upgrade Fiber Optic Infrastructure

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Stillman College on Monday announced the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has awarded the school a $2.7 million grant that will be used to upgrade its fiber optic infrastructure to "improve internet access, capacity, and performance."

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With the funding, Stillman will use its grant funding to overhaul its fiber network, which was first installed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Abe Harper, chief information officer for Stillman College, said the school will also upgrade its wireless network.

The grant comes as part of the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program — a $268 million grant program to Historically Black Colleges and Minority Serving Institutions for the installation of broadband internet access service and eligible equipment, and training of IT personnel.

“This project is transformational – it’s really going to move Stillman forward,” Stillman President Cynthia Warrick said. “Additionally, these upgrades will provide the much-needed support for our new cybersecurity and IT training center, dual-enrollment programs, and online programs, as well as our library and student initiatives.”

Upgrades are set to begin in the summer and will be finished by the fall, while the wireless network overhaul is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

“A gross improvement of our wireless network can be expected once we have the new fiber installed,” Harper said, mentioing that the college will increase its bandwidth through Comcast and AT&T. “But we will have 10 gigs of internet on campus before we break in May."

The timeframe for completion of fiber and wireless upgrades is also expected to align with the renovation schedule for the Geneva Hall center, which is receiving $2.7 million in upgrades to develop a cybersecurity and information technology training center.

“Not only will our fiber and wireless upgrades fix issues of today, but it will change Stillman’s IT capacity for the future,” said Kevin Harris, chair of the Department of Computational & Informational Sciences in the Stillman College School of Business and principal investigator for the grant. “It’s exciting for Stillman to be able to grow and expand what our students, faculty and staff can do day to day.”

What's more, the funding will be used to purchase 150 laptop computers for campus and community use at Sheppard Library and the cyber security training center.

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