 Hello, everyone. Welcome and good afternoon. My name is Alejandra Costa. I'm a policy analyst in our higher education team at New America. Welcome to our event on Pell Student Eligibility for the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program hosted by New America's Open Technology Institute and Higher Education Program. Today we're excited to talk about the Emergency Broadband Benefit, a subsidy program implemented by the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic to address challenges in accessing broadband. Through this program, people can receive up to a $50 credit to use toward internet services and up to a $75 credit for those who live on tribal lands. And college students who receive the programs can get this benefit too. During the pandemic, millions of Americans struggled to get online during a time when most of life was completely virtual and college students were no exception. I want to open this event by personifying the issue and telling you about who today's college students really are. College students today are more diverse than ever, and most don't fit into our historical image of the 18-year-old student who just moved out of their parents' home, lives in a four-year college campus dorm, and eats at the campus dining hall. In reality, most of today's college students are more diverse, they are older, and they have many responsibilities outside of school. Very few students fit that traditional image that still lives in many of our minds. These days, only 13% of college students live on a college campus, and 37% of all college students are over 25 years old. That fresh out of high school college student that can focus on school and clubs is increasingly in the minority. Instead, nearly half of today's college students are financially independent. This means that they financially support themselves and do not depend on their parents for money. Over two-thirds of college students work while in college so that they can financially support themselves, and 40% go to school part-time so that they can work and take care of their various responsibilities outside of college classes. Despite working while in school, 31% of students live at or below the federal poverty level. Today's students have responsibilities beyond themselves too. They are currently a quarter of all college students and are raising children or taking classes. For them, it's not just about deciding what to major in or what classes to take next semester, but about managing children's needs and schedules on top of their own school and life responsibilities. Today's college students are also more racially diverse than ever. The Black Student Enrollment has increased 72% between 2000 and 2010, and Latinx student enrollment increased 240% since 1996. Nearly half of today's college students are students of color. Unfortunately, students of color are more likely to be low income and attend part-time. Many are first generation college students as well. And being a student of color comes with many challenges due to the systemic racism in our country. College students today have a lot on their plate and have always faced many challenges, but the pandemic brought these issues, including broadband access issues to light. When colleges made the rapid pivot online, many students who did not have broadband access at home lost the resources they used on their college campuses to get online, like computer labs and campus white farm. Students and their colleges did what they could to make it work, and many colleges provided students with hotspots. Some students even drove to their campus parking lots to access the campus Wi-Fi from their cars. Even students who already had Wi-Fi or were given those hotspots struggled them. Their connection proved to be too weak to support multiple people like roommates, siblings, or school-aged children who were all trying to get online for school and work at the same time. Many students struggled to watch a live lecture and would get bumped out of the session because of their weak broadband. Others would hear every other word. Still, others had to sacrifice their own class and study time so that someone else in their home could have access to the internet and therefore their classes will work. What's worse is that these challenges were not felt equally across college students. Students of color, low-income students, and rural students struggled to get online much more than their white, wealthier, and urban counterparts. A May 2020 survey by Digital Promise, a congressionally authorized nonprofit organization, found that students of color and low-income students had internet connectivity issues more than white students and students from households earning over $100,000. 23% and 17% of Black and Latin American students respectively struggled connectivity, while only 12% of white students did. And in New America's recent nationally representative survey, varying degrees, 57% of all respondents said that college would be a challenge if they did not have stable high-speed internet. That's already a lot, but for Latin Neckis college students and caregiving students, this number was higher. Nearly two-thirds of Latin Neckis college student respondents and caregiving student respondents in our survey said college would be a challenge if they did not have stable high-speed internet. The digital divide does not affect all college students equally. Even students who live in areas with strong broadband can struggle with connectivity because they can't afford it. That's where a program like the Emergency Broadband Benefit can help. I'll leave it up to our keynote speaker and panelists to talk more about the program and how it can help college students. But I do want to make one thing clear as I end these opening remarks. The digital divide is real for college students. Whether students are taking all of their classes in person, are enrolled in an online program, or are engaged in a mix of the two, stable high-speed internet is absolutely essential for them to do the daily work to ultimately earn their degree and change their life. And it's even more important to make quality broadband accessible to close racial inequities that exist in the digital divide and in our higher education system. Today's college students, the commuters, the parents, returning adults, low-income students and students of color need to hear about the Emergency Broadband Benefit program so that they can access affordable quality internet to pursue their college dreams. With that, I will pass it over to our keynote speaker, Jessica Rosenwurzel, acting chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission. Thank you. And hello everyone. It is great to be with the Open Technology Institute and New America's Higher Education Program. As Alejandro was just mentioning last week, the team at New America released this really big survey about what the pandemic has meant for education and specifically learning at home. And if you haven't seen it, I recommend you take a look because if you dig into the research, you'll see the kind of numbers that explain precisely why we're gathered right here right now. And what the team found about who is connected and who is under connected during the pandemic is striking. They determined that cost is really one of the biggest reasons why families lack internet service where they live. In fact, the data show that 18% of families who have home broadband say their service has been cut off at least once in the past 12 months because they had problems paying for it. And among those families that might rely on a mobile subscription to get online with a smart phone, one in six had their service cut off at some point during the past year. What that tells us is that a significant number of Americans who need to be online are making month to month decisions about whether or not they can afford to pay for internet access. And faced with the burden of having to decide whether to pay for essentials, like housing, transportation or medicine. They can let their internet service lapse. So we can all agree that with all the things we have to worry about during this pandemic, nobody should have to choose between putting food on the table or paying their broadband bill. But the data show very clearly it's happening. But change is happening too, because help has arrived for millions of American families. And that's because at the close of last year, Congress approved a COVID relief package that included $3.2 billion to establish the emergency broadband benefit. This is a big deal. It's our nation's largest ever program to help Americans afford internet service. And that includes college students and Pell Grant recipients too. So with this program in place, eligible households can now receive discounts of up to $50 a month for broadband service or up to $75 a month if they reside on tribal lands. And participants can also receive a one time $100 discount off of a computer or tablet. So Congress gave us only 60 days to write rules for this program. And so the FCC staff burn the midnight oil staying up late nights and weekends to stand this program up and record time. We decided we would put consumers first, and we established guiding principles for the emergency broadband benefit. We determined that it needed to be expansive, inclusive and transparent. And because this program is funded with appropriated funds, we sought to use the resources we have fairly smartly and efficiently. And we hit all the deadlines and on May 12, the Commission opened the emergency broadband benefit to the public. And since that time, households across the country that are eligible, including those who struggled with job loss during the last year, who have a child in the free and reduced school lunch program, or who received a Pell Grants have benefited from the broadband supported by this program. We've also learned a lot during the six weeks that the program's been up and running. And even though it's only been open for a short time, I want to talk today about the lessons learned that we can apply to our ongoing efforts and any future initiatives to help Americans afford broadband. The first and top line takeaway from the past few weeks is that there is consumer demand and consumer need for a broadband affordability program. In the first week after launching the emergency broadband benefit, more than one million households signed up for months, you know, we pointed to surveys to show that too many Americans will worried about how to pay their broadband bill. But more than one million enrollees in one week proves beyond any doubt that too many households are struggling to afford to get online. As of this week, that number exceeds three million, and it continues to grow. While the emergency broadband benefit was established to help families get through the pandemic with these enrollment numbers at this stage in the crisis. I think it's clear that the need for the emergency broadband benefit or something similar will outlast COVID-19. Now the second key lesson I would draw from the program rollout so far is that trusted voices are the lifeblood of successful outreach and enrollment campaigns. I'm working with organizations and officials at the national state and local level. I personally participated in outreach events with multiple members of Congress tribal leaders, and a diverse group of local and national advocates. We've done national press appearances and local news stories. We've joined HPC use to discuss the importance of this program. We have 30 Spanish language presentations, briefings and interviews. And we even got the NFL on board with a player on the Arizona Cardinals joining me for an editorial and the Miami Dolphins Foundation developing a video to promote this program. And stay tuned because there's more to come. We've done over 200 virtual public presentations on this program since April, and those have ranged from small local events for community groups and libraries to larger train the trainer style events with national nonprofit organizations. And we partnered across government to we worked with the Department of Labor to provide information to state unemployment offices and workforce associations across the country. We partnered with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Education sent emails to every single health grant recipient to tell them about this opportunity. And as you know, that's more than 6 million students nationwide. This February, we have enlisted over 24,000 partners, ranging from local boys and girls clubs, school districts, libraries, YMCA's food banks, meals on wheels and grassroots organizers to national nonprofits and key individuals who focus on digital inclusion to help us spread the word. And we've empowered those partners with a customizable toolkit that includes a wide variety of materials to use when spreading the word about this important program. And those materials are available in English and Spanish, along with 13 other languages. So you add it all up. And by leveraging the power of trusted voices and earn media opportunities, we've raised enough awareness about this program to enroll millions of Americans. And looking at the data we've noticed a real increase in traffic to our website and enrollments when there are news broadcasts and local reports about the program. But of course, we're not done yet. And the third lesson to take away from the past few months is the importance of being nimble. The emergency broadband benefits, not like a wind up doll that we can just merely send on its way. It needs monitoring and it needs regular care. Before the start of this program, the FCC hosted a series of roundtable events to hear from our partners. My staff has continued to hold these conversations after the program got underway. And today I'm announcing we're going to start a new round of listening sessions with stakeholders to learn best practices. I want to know what's work. What did, and what ideas our partners have for next steps on outreach. You've got a good idea. Bring it. Our virtual door is open. Now part of being nimble also involves looking at the data and seeing what we can learn. And in the spirit of greater transparency around the program. I'm pleased to announce that today we're going to make more granular enrollment data public down to the local level. And for the information viewers out there that means figures at the three digits of code level. This is a lot more granular than the statewide data we've used to date. And we're hoping it can be used to help improve our understanding of where the program is reaching consumers. I hope everyone can take a look at this new data slice and dice the different ways to identify what changes the program would benefit from under existing law, and in any subsequent legislative effort that follows. Now the last lesson I'd like to close with is this, even though the emergency broadband benefit is a national program. It is important to remember that this program is successful household by household. It's not state by state or county by county. And that is why it is so important to develop local pathways to reach those who need this program the most. So let me talk about one of those households we were able to reach. Amanda Shermhorn is a mom. In fact she's a mother to four kids. She lives in rural Minnesota, where thanks to a Pell Grant. She is getting a degree. But it hasn't been easy. She has struggled without a reliable internet connection and her kids have struggled to, especially her son with autism. But with her classwork, Amanda would sometimes sit in her car in the parking lot of Minnesota State Community and Technical College, just to use the free Wi-Fi signal. Other times she would rise at 4am, just to get her online homework done before her children would wake for the day and exhaust their limited home connection with their virtual school. However, was determined not to let her lack of reliable and consistent internet access stop her from getting her education. And whoa, that grit really matters. Because as New America has found, nearly one in five community college students reported stopping their education during this pandemic, because they lacked sufficient internet access. So Amanda has both incredible drive and very long days. But now with the broadband benefit we have, we can make it a bit easier for her and for her children. And that's just one household. One household we can help with broadband. One household that can now keep up with school and so much more in modern life that has moved online. One household we can prevent from being consigned to the wrong side of the digital divide. Imagine doing that again and again and again. Household after household after household. That's what the emergency broadband benefit looks like. And while we think nationally about this program, its benefits may be best counted one by one, household by household, because the stories they tell are powerful. This program is powerful demand for it is out there, local efforts to get the word out about its benefits are key. And that's especially true for Pell Grant recipients. Being nimble and data driven is essential because we really have to meet consumers where they are. And it's also important to recognize that our success comes down to reaching individual households, so that everyone, no matter who they are, or where they live has a fair shot at opportunity in the digital age. Thank you. My name is Emily Balclust and I'm the deputy executive director at higher learning advocates, a nonprofit advocacy organization working toward bipartisan federal policies to better serve today's students. Thank you to new America's higher ed program and OTI for having me and our panelists here today. I'm now happy to introduce you to our awesome panelists. Savannah Stiger is a senior at the University of Maine at Machias studying psychology and community studies. Savannah is also a parent to a six year old girl, and a three year old boy, and as an aspen ascend student parent advisor. Nancy Russell is the president of dinner college, a public tribal land grant college in Saley Arizona that serves the Navajo nation. Carmen lids is the vice chancellor and chief information officer for the Los Angeles Community College District. And Edward Bartholomew is the associate bureau chief of consumer and governmental affairs at the federal communications commission. If you have any questions for the panelists throughout our discussion, please use the question and answer function at the bottom of your zoom screen, or type your questions in the chat box. We'll do our best answer as many questions as possible today. I want to start with Savannah. So Savannah you've had firsthand experience with connectivity challenges in order to complete your college coursework. Can you tell us a little bit about the struggles that you overcame in order to keep learning and did any of your classmates experience similar challenges with broadband access. I live in rural Maine, and where I was living before where I live now I lived off the grid and I had no internet and no power and all of that. And so to get my school work done, I was driving to the campus and using the internet there with the kids in the car or I would try to go to the library and nap time and go to the libraries and the parking lot there and do my school work. And at one point they did give us hotspots and those worked. Oh my goodness. Oh, I'm sorry. So those worked pretty well. But for some people they didn't because they're very hit or miss one of my classmates who lived on the grid in town. She lived like in a dead zone and so she would have to put her hotspot in the window at the right angle, just so she could get service but it really only worked at certain times of day and she actually worked nights and so she slept during the day so finding that window to do her homework was very difficult. And I had another friend who was a classmate who they just had unlimited data on their phones to use to get to have internet at their home and that even the unlimited data at the end of the month that slows down. So I know a lot of people who have struggled with internet access. And what does that mean when thinking about trying to complete your assignments to tune into video lectures and ultimately work toward completing your college degree or credential. I feel like it means that you definitely hate online classes. I mean at least I do and everyone I talk to we're all just like online, but it's hard because you have to plan things and even for classes that are in person, or have I had one this past semester that was online, but we had to show up in the virtual lecture. And that didn't feel fair that was really difficult to do and so it makes everything much harder you have to plan that much more and I have several classmates who in addition to being parents and students work full time. And so then it's like finding those little windows and a lot of the time, even though I go to a small school and the professors usually worked with me at times there was no other choice it's like you have to take this class at four in the afternoon. That is a terrible time but okay. Yeah, thanks for an I appreciate you sharing that with us and Monty, we're hoping that you can tell us a little bit about the challenges that your students based during the pandemic and access and the internet, and how the emergency broadband benefit could help to improve their educational outcomes. Thank you well, of course, and thank you for this opportunity. And I think I'd like to start off by saying that we think the word access is a very if you look at the dictionary it has a very specific answer very specific definition, but it is not, it is a very vague word. So, for example when we converted from when the pandemic just hit, and we started trying to survey our students what were their capacity with broadband Wi Fi phones that different things like that. We asked the question do you have access to the internet access to Wi Fi. And one of the surveys came back and the person said yes and then we asked them to explain a little more. Right that explanation helps kind of drive where we're going to provide some resources. And the response I got was, I drive 15 miles on top of a Mesa, and then I climb a little higher on a hill, and I can get access through my phone. And nobody on this call and nobody listening would define that as access, but for our students, it was access, and they were happy to get that. And so I think that's something that you know some of the challenges that we faced of earlier Savannah talked about the parking lots, and you know colleges universities all over this country created these parking lot spots. It's wonderful we had to do what we had to do, but it also is embarrassing. It's embarrassing that this is what college and none of us, except for Savannah would have would imagine that type of education when they went to college. And for us here because we're very remote we're in the northeast part of the state of Arizona. In the middle of the Navajo nation, we would have families, not the student but families come to our parking lot in a pickup truck, pull out blankets, spread them out over the ground. And their kids would be accessing the internet for the K 12 their their mom or dad might be doing something with college. And you had a whole family sitting in a parking lot, just to attend kindergarten just to attend fifth grade just to attend college. And again, access so I think one of the things that's important. When we look at this is how do we try to transition, you know and I think that's something that we're really talking about, because this support for tribal lands for our students my students $75 would go a long ways. Because what did I just explain, it'll go a long way so they can pay for their access and that money that they save now goes to gasoline for access. So they're still at the same level they were right, but it helps them, it helps them continue. And I think that's what we're really trying to focus with our tribal students because a lot of them come we come from the hardest hit area. You know, the Navajo Nation was probably the hardest hit area during COVID. And then within the Navajo Nation, our college sits in an agency in the middle of the Navajo Nation, and which was hardest hit within the Navajo Nation so our students overcame a lot. And a lot of these stories of resilience and determination and courage come down not just in terms of surviving but what they had to do in order to continue their college education so this, this support allows them to move forward. You know, but I do have a concern, how long, because the one thing that we have to think about is that this is not a problem that ends tomorrow, or this is a problem that will go on forever. So how do we make sure that this is just one step in a long traveling towards where we want to be. And I think one of the things, you know that that we're looking at and what's interesting for us is how do we get the word out to students who don't have access about here's an opportunity to get access. And it's one of those conundrums, because most of our students, a lot of our students, you know, some of the data that was shared earlier, talked about how, you know, the students lost connectivity during the month and whatnot. Well, here, a lot of our students have the phones that are subsidized. So they go through two or three phone numbers in a semester sometimes, you know just to continue that and so how do we communicate this to them. That's a challenge. It's a good challenge in the sense of there's something there to help. And I think that's something that kind of motivates all of us. I also think it's important that you know the, the access, it's also changing the way we deliver education. So, you know, one of the things that we, we know that even with access to broadband, it's limited. The more people on it, it congested everything so it's changing the way we teach to try to ensure that we're not running up the data bills were changing we're trying to work with students in a different manner. And finally, I taught a photography class during this and you know you can imagine how much bandwidth that took in terms of people sending and all that so we started just texting and you know you try to find workarounds like that. But having this ability, you know we had students, all sorts of stories over and over. And I think this is something that allows us an opportunity to say okay. We're going to get that if a student can get that then we can focus on the other two. There are three major hindrances for our students. One is transportation, childcare, and access to broadband. So we can get one that's kind of, okay, we can focus on the other two. And I think that's what we're doing now with this program, we can actually try to provide more gas stipends for transportation for students. And we can also prepare for students when they come into the, if they have to come to a parking lot and provide that so it also helps the institution in being able to try to address some of the other needs that are there. So it really has a, a, a, a bonus impact on a lot of different areas. I appreciate you sharing those details and certainly your work on behalf of your students and helping them address those challenges during the pandemic and, and now and beyond. Thank you. Edward, turn a little bit to you and I think it's a perfect segue. And can you tell us a little bit about enrollment and the ebb program so far, I know we heard the chairwoman speak about that a little bit. Is there any information on how many Pell Grant recipients are signing up and what can colleges and universities do to help their students navigate this program are their best practices you recommend or is there any way that they can reach out to you for help with the application process. Sure. So I'll break that apart in chunks so the, the 3 million 3 million is the top line number so that's what the new data today tells us that over 3 million households are now enrolled. We're not to the point yet where we broken out the data by the different eligibility categories. Some of that's difficult to do and maintain privacy just because of where we're at with the numbers but those are things that we're looking to make more data available as the program continues to move forward so the new data set today. Does show data that's broken down to the zip three level, which is something that a lot of partners and a lot of people who have been helping us to spread the word have been asking for. And now I dropped the link to that in the chat while the chairwoman acting chairwoman was giving her remarks so you can find that there and I encourage everybody to go look at that data set. In terms of Pell Grant recipients and sort of reaching people and what are best practices. And then the chairwoman acting chairwoman did mention this is a household to household effort and it is enough, you know, we need to meet people where they are aware and agency that prior to the pandemic was on the road a lot and we did do a lot of in person events and a lot of places, and that can go screeching halt. So we knew with standing up a program like this where you have $3.2 billion worth of funding to get out to create awareness around and to make sure that people can who need it can take advantage of it. We knew that was going to need, we would need the help of trusted voices partners community organizers and specific to Pell Grant recipients. And then the university financial aid offices jumping in and helping to spread the word folks on campus making sure that their campus communities know about this. There's been a lot of talk and I think Savannah and Monty have touched on just the diversity and backgrounds and students today. And that you know different people are coming from different places and access means different things for different folks. I did know there was one group that we could reach out to who had a list of all the Pell Grant recipients in the country and that was our friends at the Department of Education. So, early on we reached out to them and they were able to send an email to every Pell Grant recipient and that went to every 2020 to 2021 school year recipient, and every 2021 to 2022 school year Pell Grant award recipient. And I want to make sure people can find this email if they're one of those people so it came from an email address that is no reply at student aid dot gov. The subject line was apply for the emergency broadband benefit program, and the header in the email was you are eligible for the emergency broadband benefit program. So do the search look in your email boxes find that email. The other great thing about that email is for Pell Grant recipients that serves as your proof. So when you complete the online application that you can find it get emergency broadband.org. Yes, there's some questions about who you are background address all those things. There's a box you check that says I'm a program award recipient. You'll have the ability to upload a copy of that email directly into that application and that's how you get approved so find the email. Go sign up if you haven't already. And I refer people to our toolkit we've put together a lot of great materials that folks can grab and easily make use of, and, and, you know, just get the word out there about this so with that I'll wrap up I hope I got all the things that you teed up for me. Yeah, great, absolutely thanks I've already appreciate that. And maybe we can share in the chat again that email address the subject line etc for folks who are on the lookout for that email. Carmen let's hear from you, maybe a little bit about how the Los Angeles Community College District has been working to remove barriers for broadband access. I believe there was a survey to students to identify these barriers and what are you and others at your institution and others in the state of California doing to help students enroll in the ebb program. Thank you Emily. Before we go into talking about the things that we have done I want to share a little bit of our about our students so Los Angeles Community College District is amongst the largest in the nation, with about 230,000 full and part time students across our nine colleges. We have about half of our students report their income near or below the poverty line. Each year, LACCD distributes around $250 million in financial aid awards, not including student loans. The financial aid is critical to opening doors and higher education to those could not afford college otherwise. Those are the very pale recipients that Edward was mentioning. We also are a leading educator in California for Latinx and African American students including DACA students. Our nine colleges combined educates twice as many African American and Latinx students than the University of California system in its entirety. And one really important point is that about a third of our students are parents 33%, just like Savannah. Every support that we provide to one of our students provides help to their entire family. As Emily mentioned in spring of 2020 early in the pandemic, we conducted a student survey to understand the impact of the pandemic on our students. From the sudden reordering of their daily life to most tragic personal consequences. Some of our students have lost family, friends, dear ones during this pandemic. We have all been challenged, but some of our students have been challenged more than more than more more. We, we had about 11% response rate to to the survey. And here's what we found, which is not probably surprising to anybody on this panel. About 14% of our students had access to internet. That meant 20% of students did not have access to internet. 14% indicated that only sometimes have access to a to internet. And with the qualifications that Monty provided earlier, similar scenarios happen for our students either when they say they have access to internet that could mean a variety of things. 76% of our students had access to a computer with 15% indicating that only sometimes have an access to a device because they share it, just like they share their internet with their family with their siblings with their roommates. For some of our students that have children, children that go to school themselves, it meant sacrificing their own computer time so their children can have the best connectivity or access to the device for them to complete their studies. Additionally, we found significant increase in the stress level and a multitude of personal challenges. Many of our students have lost their job or have reduced hours. They had dealt with food insecurity, loss of housing, and more significant in some ways loss of health care, or childcare for for their, for their children. So the magnitude of this pandemic had serious practical implication. But from a technology perspective from a broadband perspective, it was nothing new. The broadband digital divide was there before the pandemic. It just shone a light on on the on the lack of access across the across the nation. From an LACC perspective, we had to reinvent every aspect of our operations. We have purchased and distributed over 40,000 devices to our students. We also just like other colleges and universities enabled parking lots with Wi Fi and open them to our students when the health guidelines allowed for that to happen. Early in the pandemic the ISPs have provided 30 days 60 days free access for our students that very shortly ended. We had the FCC lifeline program, which hasn't been mentioned but it's been it was an amazing resource for our students. The city of LA digital inclusion program on and the foundation for California Community College College by program that has been so important for our students and getting low, low cost internet on access. And I would be remiss not to mention that we have a fantastic group of faculty that have done whatever it took to continue teaching during the pandemic and utilizing all of the tools that we put out there disposal. We rolled out 365 new online software to accommodate with the variety of programmatic needs. The faculty have embarked and utilize these new tools to to provide access for capability for our students to continue their learning and broadband and connectivity. I see as the virtual railroad and past to access information, and we need to build this high speed networks, just like we have roads, highways, and alongside all of our railroads. We need to increase affordability and accessibility of broadband service to all underserved residential areas and provide free wireless service and parks public spaces across our communities. The emergency broadband program continues that support for our students, but it needs to to be sustainable. And the availability of high speed internet access it is essential not only for for teaching and learning, but for economic competitiveness and a high quality of life in the 21st century. Thank you again for the opportunity. Great. Thank you, Carmen. So looking forward. You know, I would love if the panelists could share their thoughts on what might happen. If and when the EVV program funding runs out. Do any of you have plans for how to continue to address these needs at the student level institution level the district level. Maybe Edward, would you like to take us off here. Happy to and I think it might make sense for me to talk a little bit about how the program will wind down as a starting point so it's $3.2 billion those funds will either become exhausted or six months after the end of the pandemic is declared by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, whichever one of those two happens first is when the program will end. Provider we included some really important consumer protections and the rules of the program to make sure that families don't end up with bill shock when the program doesn't so providers have to notify households. When there is a the last time that they will get the full discount on their bill so if they're getting the full $50 or the full 75 when will that occur. The last time when they may get a partial discount on the bill so there is a scenario where they might have a month that's partially offset and they don't get the full discount. When households need to continue to will need to opt in to continue service with the provider and that's true even if they were with that provider before the emergency broadband benefits started they still need to affirmatively opt in to continue receiving really those are designed so that nobody has the discount run out and suddenly they're accruing an extra 50 or 60 or whatever amount per month or one two months before they realize that they now have a debt that they owe to a broadband service provider. I do want to just point out that lifeline was mentioned and there's a question in the chat that talked about, you know, USF programs. Lifeline was created under the Reagan administration, it was very much primarily focused on telephone support in recent years there is a broadband component to it it's $9 and 25 cents per month or 3425 if you're on tribal land. The program really builds on a lot of their tools and resources that were built for the lifeline program so you'll know that note that life if you qualify for lifeline you're automatically qualified for the EBB. I can't speculate on where a program like this goes next but lifeline is a current program that people can make use of slightly different but it does exist today and will exist after the EBB ends. Thanks for that information. Would anyone perhaps like to speculate what they think should happen if the program runs out or how we're going to continue to support students and broadband access. So I will start. I would, I would approach this in removing barriers to universal sustainable brand that access by looking at it and a four prong approach. And having quality internet service available and so the availability of the broadband across all areas to access to devices ensuring that all families have access to a computer. Three advocacy for policy change ensuring that a program such as the EBB are not time bound but are continuous programs to provide some subsidies for families that most need them. And number four, digital literacy, ensuring that all of the families and all of the students, every person knows what each program provides for them, what programs there are available for them out there. And deciphering what will provide to them. And sometimes deciphering that the various types of available programs can be can be difficult for for some families. So making it very simple and clear. This is what the program provides and this is how it compares to this other program. Yeah, that makes sense or perhaps if there were navigators to help kind of navigate these different programs and issues and and help kind of with that digital literacy. Thanks Kevin for for sharing that and Monty would love to hear if you have any thoughts and, you know, about how Pell Grant students are eligible for the EBB or maybe other students who don't receive a Pell Grant and how are we going to help them, you know, continue to work toward completing their degree. I'm going to circle back to access. I think that we, we need to redefine that in a manner that it's not access to broadband it's not access to the internet, but it's access to education. And if you look at it as access to education it changes the way we look at the problem and then attempt a solution. While EBB is great right now. The reason for it is a band aid. We have that need right now. Well a band aid is not physical therapy a band aid is not going to solve what we need to do going forward. So we need to come come back as Carmen said I think there are things that we can do in the immediate. It's a big policy decision. And you know and I think that's, I think where we come from being on a reservation is that geography should not define if I can go to college from my home. That's just wrong. That's, you know I'll say that's un-American. Right, it should not be like that. So if we change the question, not about access to the internet but access to college. And we also are looking at it in a different way. And so I think one of the things that that we're doing I mean we, we got to focus on what we can do here. So we can talk these big talks and you know all this and that and then you know that we leave this and maybe nothing happened so we have to do something to address what we have right now. And so one of the things we're doing is we're creating micro campuses across the reservation. We built two at another one. So I talked about these long drives of our students. So if you're driving an hour to class or an hour back, and you cut that to 30 minutes. That's a real game changer in terms of your day and what you can do with your family and things like that and one hour is not is not the norm. It's more like two hours. So providing different access points. The other thing we're doing is we're working with K-12 schools. Enrollment has been declining over the last many years and it's going to continue to decline. So there's a lot of empty space at K-12 schools. How can we repurpose that to provide an access point for education, for parents and families. So trying to change that idea is what we're looking at going forward. I think you know the focus that we really have right now is if we can at least right now get some breathing room through this program. We can kind of marshal our resources, our limited resources. And that's one thing travel colleges, you know, we don't have a lot of money, but we're scrappy, we know how to get things done and things like that so if we can remarshall those resources both financial as well as just the personal resources. I think that'll help us get further along. And I think the other thing is really making the argument of the importance of education. Getting a wrap about higher ed doesn't do this doesn't do that. And I think really being able to show that connection. This is where it's needed. This is how it can help your family. This is how you could improve. And that starts with access. And it's about education. It's about, you know, your family climbing the ladder so I think it has to be done on a lot of different levels. You know, we're going to engage where we can fit, but we're also going to have to do things that are specific just to our students and our population and our community. Yeah, I appreciate that. Savannah, can you tell us just from the student angle, especially as a student parent, what do students need to continue to be successful and in thinking, you know that perhaps the ebb program might be is winding down. How do we continue to connect with students and get the word out about other resources they may have and just love to hear your student perspective about what we can do and what students need to be successful. Yeah, I think that money really hit the head on the nail on the head with changing what access means, right because like just because I can access the internet on my phone doesn't mean it's really the class is accessible. And so I think that's important to keep in mind. I would love to see a sliding scale for internet payments come into play, because basically you have to have internet now if you want to function. In the first century, I feel like you pretty much have to have it if you want to go to school, or if you want to work a job that is like an upper level job, you've got to have internet, you can't not have it. And so I think that that needs to change and I would love to see students being given more money, like that always helps things. And just to continue asking students, what do you need what do you need how can we help because they have the most true and best opinion of it, because what I need is different than what my classmates need is different what students at other colleges need like we all have diversity and so by asking everybody, how can we help you and then hearing and then using that information I think is essential. Yeah, great. I think maybe one more quick question before we wrap up this afternoon. And maybe Monty and Carmen could kick us off with helping to answer this but what are some resources that colleges and universities need to help their students apply for the EBB and to navigate the program current we were talking about this a little bit before and Monty about reaching students and how do we get the word out how do we help them enroll and access this this benefit that's been created and what the colleges need to be able to do that. I'll go first and I'll be brief, because based on the earlier conversations we had a Carmen had a lot of ideas here. I want to make sure she's able to get to them. But I think that it comes down to a real simple thing we have to try to find a way to get to the students where they're at, whatever that means. You know, and that's not a cop out answer but it's really trying to say, for us here it's really different I created this social media group with students that's really trying to and, and this is one of the things they're trying to do because they're much more likely to, to hear from and listen to, you know, one of their friends and from me and say look at what I got with this program. So I think that's really important is just trying to find whatever avenue there is for us, you know, and it's a lot of different things to it's not just, you know, we talked about it with the FCC acting chair earlier, talked about all these events. And so, all of those and whatever's left out I mean I hate to say, you know, at that generally but for us it's really trying to get to how we can get to them I think one of the things too is trying to use employers to help, because those employers, their kids maybe going to school, and that's one way to try to address it so looking at the business community to try to have that, you know, where can we insert this information, and I might be helpful there. So, I agree with that wholeheartedly that the more communication is out there the more likely it is that a student will see it somewhere. The other thing that I would say is students tend to look at their peers as trusted source. So, using other students as champions using the student government associations on the colleges as a funnel of that information and communication distribution mechanism. It's, it's critical. Edward mentioned the Department of Education lists of Pell recipients and how each one of them has been sent an email that the challenge with that is that although that that's a mass way of reaching everyone. A subset of those students are going to look at those emails and I'm going to say this is not legitimate this is a this is a scam someone's trying to convince me to, to, I don't know, be taken advantage of and we've been, you know, having the security of this for our students trying to keep them away from bad guys so sometimes it's really difficult to, to make the differentiation between the bad guys and the good guys, particularly when you get an email saying, I'm going to give you money. And we've been specifically making them aware that that those are not typically a good thing so. We've had that challenge not not only with the, with the EBB, but also when we were handing out a student assistance from from the her funds or what not to direct aid to students. Sometimes the challenge so multiple communications coming from different sources that can then reinforce that that's a legitimate offering and get it out through through the means that they communicate through. And here, whatever social media we managed to do, as well as if it is permissible at your institution to text the students with with information then that it's another another mechanism to do it posted on the website student portals. As well as other areas where they might go like library sites and whatnot. The other thing is, there are other location where students are that are in need go, such as food pantries food housing community centers, etc. So I would make sure that this information is also available on the city sites where the local community sites that provide access to other to other resources. So then the students would find this in the same place they would go for other necessities. I truly see internet access being as much a necessity as electricity. And I'm going to end there since we're at the clock mark. Thank you very much. Thank you and thank you so much to all of our panelists. I think this was so helpful and informative and thank you to the audience for joining us today. If you're looking for more information related to the ebb program, you can visit get emergency broadband.org to learn more and check out some of the resources that we listed over in the chat throughout the session. And hope everyone has a great afternoon.