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Even Morehouse did not know that the announcement was imminent.
Sending to the 2019 college promotion, Robert F. Smith, a richer man than Oprah Winfrey, made a grand gesture straight out of the TV magnate's game book.
"My family will create a grant to eliminate your student loans," he said Sunday morning, thus reshaping the caps and dress of about 400 students.
"This is my class," he said.
In January, Mr. Smith, a billionaire, donated $ 1.5 million to the college to fund scholarships and a new park on campus. He received an honorary degree at graduation on Sunday.
The value of the new gift is not clear due to the variable amounts owed by the students, but the money will be paid via Morehouse College and will apply to "loans directly to students for their college studies" , said a representative of Mr. Smith. Since the directors of Morehouse were not informed of Mr. Smith's plans prior to the ceremony, details of how the money would be distributed are not immediately available.
A Private Equity Titan, Mr. Smith founded Vista Equity Partners in 2000.
After making a fortune in software, he was named by Afghans the richest African-American in the country. According to the financial magazine, Mr. Smith's estimated net worth is $ 5 billion, which makes him richer than Ms. Winfrey, who previously held the title of Richest Black.
Mr. Smith studied chemical engineering at Cornell University and finance and marketing at Columbia Business School, according to Vista Equity Partners.
In recent years, Smith has made several high level philanthropic donations. He launched the Fund II Foundation, which aims in part to preserve the African-American experience. He is also the only African-American to sign the Giving Pledge. Cornell has named his school of chemical and biomolecular engineering after the announcement of a $ 50 million donation.
Sunday's announcement came as more and more appeals tackled the heavy burden of student loan debt in the United States, which has more than doubled in the last decade.
Over the past 20 years, average private tuition and tuition fees Four-year colleges rose 58 percent, after accounting for inflation, while tuition fees at four-year-old public colleges increased even more, by more than 100 percent, according to a study by College Board.
According to federal data, the average federal debt related to student loans is $ 32,000. The standard repayment plan for federal student loans goes up to 10 years, but according to the research, most students take a lot longer to pay off their balance.
For students at Morehouse, an all-male, traditionally black college in Atlanta, which costs about $ 48,500 a year, the gift could be transformative, especially in the unstable years following graduation.
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Tonga Releford, whose son Charles Releford III is a member of the Morehouse class in 2019, estimated that his son had lent about $ 70,000.
"I feel like it's Mother's Day again," she said.
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