Not too many of us remember our commencement speaker, unless they were someone famous. In the back of our minds, we were thinking about getting the heck out of there. Summer was coming and it was time to be done! If you are part of the Morehouse College Class of 2019, you won’t be forgetting your commencement speaker anytime soon.
Robert F. Smith is a technology investor and a billionaire. He is the CEO of Vista Equity Partners and was asked to speak at Morehouse College to send off the graduates. Little did the students know, this billionaire CEO was going to announce to the world he was going to pay off all the student loans. What an incredible moment it was!
You could see in the crowd plenty of shocked faces as the audience stood and gave Smith a standing ovation. The amount of student loans for the class of 400 totals somewhere near $40 million. Smith also pledged a $1.5 million gift to the school as well. So, it’s easy to see how this man is clearly giving back to the next generation. In fact, he tells them to do the same.
“On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus. This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans,” Smith said to nearly 400 graduating students who cheered when they heard the news. “I know my class will make sure they pay this forward…and let’s make sure every class has the same opportunity going forward because we are enough to take care of our own community.”
Student Loans and Politics
Student loans has been a highly politicized topic in recent months. Most of the Democratic candidates at the beginning of their campaign has promised to champion the student loan debt problem. Currently, 44 million Americans owe $1.53 trillion. That’s not a number that appears to be going down anytime soon.
Yet, it’s moments like what went down at Morehouse College that has people paying attention. Morehouse is an all-male school that is historically all black. It’s located in Atlanta, Georgia. Smith says a person’s education shouldn’t be left up to where they live or the color of their skin. We should all be helping in our own way.
“Where you live shouldn’t determine whether you get educated. Where you go to school shouldn’t determine whether you get textbooks,” Smith said. “The opportunity you access should be determined by the fierceness of your intellect, the courage in your creativity and the grit that allows you to overcome expectations that weren’t set high enough.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the voices along with Bernie Sanders calling for free college for everyone, made her voice known on this topic. She tweeted:
“Every Morehouse Class of 2019 student is getting their student debt load paid off by their commencement speaker. This could be the start of what’s known in Econ as a ‘natural experiment.’ Follow these students & compare their life choices w their peers over the next 10-15 years.”
She added in another tweet, “It’s important to note that people shouldn’t be in a situation where they depend on a stranger’s enormous act of charity for this kind of liberation to begin with (aka college should be affordable), but it is an incredible act of community investment in this system as it is.”
