Computers to provide colonias residents with Internet access

Colonias residents, many of whom lack internet access, will soon be able to get online on computer stations in 42 community resource centers all along the border operated by the Texas A&M College of Architecture’s [Colonias Program] (http://colonias.arch.tamu.edu/) .

“The computers will provide students with access to do research and homework, and mom and dad will be able to use the computers as well,” Oscar Munoz, Colonias Program director, [said] (http://www.mesquite-news.com/colonias-program-provides-internet-access-for-rural-students/) in The Mesquite, the student newspaper at Texas A&M University-San Antonio.

The program’s community resource centers serve colonias — small rural, unincorporated communities located along the Texas – Mexico border which generally lack one or more infrastructure amenties such as running water or paved roads.

The centers already function partly as libraries and homework hubs for many children in the colonias, said Muñoz.

College [Information Technology Services] (http://www.arch.tamu.edu/inside/services/information-technology-services/) staffers Jason Vaughn, James Gillette and James Rosser saw that computers at the college headed for surplus could, with a minimal amount of reprogramming and updating, serve to aid colonias residents in the community centers.