A bombshell of a gift
Graduation speaker to pay off college loans of 400-member class
A billionaire technology investor stunned the entire graduating class at Morehouse College when he announced at their commencement Sunday that he will pay off their student loans.
Robert F. Smith deviated from his prepared remarks to tell the nearly 400 seniors of the all-male, historically black college in Atlanta: “My family is going to create a grant to eliminate your student loans!”
Estimates of the student debt for the class of 2019 varied widely, from $5 million to $40 million.
Smith, who is black, is the Founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a private-equity firm that invests in software, data and technology-driven companies. According to the financial magazine Forbes, Smith’s estimated net worth is $5 billion, making him richer than Oprah Winfrey, who previously held the title of the wealthiest black person.
The announcement immediately drew stunned looks from faculty members and students alike. Then the graduates broke into cheers and stood. Morehouse said it is the largest gift to the college.
Smith, who received an honorary doctorate from Morehouse during the ceremony, had already announced a $1.5 million gift to the school. Smith
Smith said he expected the recipients to “pay it forward” and said he hoped that “every class has the same opportunity going forward.”
In the weeks before graduating, 22-yearold finance major Aaron Mitchom drew up a spreadsheet to calculate how long it would take him to pay back his $200,000 in student loans: 25 years at half his monthly salary. In an instant, that number vanished. Mitchom, sitting in the crowd, wept.
“I can delete that spreadsheet,” he said afterward. “I don’t have to live off of peanut butter-andjelly sandwiches.”