Billionaire investor Robert F. Smith made headlines in 2019 when he announced that he would pay off the student loan debt of the entire graduating class of Morehouse College.
Smith’s $34 million gift helped 396 graduates start their next chapter without the burden of their college loans. He made the surprise announcement on May 19, 2019, during his commencement speech at the historically Black, all-male college in Atlanta, Georgia.
Students, parents and school officials were stunned by the news. The crowd responded with a standing ovation and chants of “MVP!”
“On behalf of eight generations of my family who have been in this country, we’re going to put a little fuel in your bus … and my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans,” Smith said.
The announcement turned the Morehouse College graduation ceremony into a major news story. For the graduates, the gift meant they could begin building their careers and personal lives without having to make payments on the student loans covered by the donation.
Smith, the founder, chairman, and CEO of investment firm Vista Equity Partners, later fulfilled his promise by donating $34 million to cover the student debt of the 2019 graduating class. The gift also drew attention to the high cost of college and the financial pressure many students face after earning their degrees.
At the time, the full amount of the graduates’ debt was still being calculated. By September 2019, reports confirmed that Smith had donated $34 million to make good on his promise.
The graduating class included 396 students. The reported total covered student loans as well as debt taken on by some parents and guardians to help pay for college.
Morehouse College President David A. Thomas described the gift as a “liberation gift.” He explained that student loan payments can limit the choices graduates make as they enter the workforce and plan their futures.
“When you have to service debt, the choices about what you can go do in the world are constrained,” Thomas told CNN. “[Smith’s gift] gives them the liberty to follow their dreams, their passions.”
The amount was especially significant because Morehouse students typically graduated with between $35,000 and $40,000 in student loan debt, according to the college. Removing that burden gave the 2019 graduates more room to make decisions about their careers, homes, families, and future goals.
Smith also urged the graduates to help others when they had the chance. He said he expected them to “pay it forward” and hoped future graduating classes would have similar opportunities.
“We are enough to take care of our own community,” Smith said. “We are enough to ensure we have all the opportunities of the American dream. And we will show it to each other through our actions and through our words and through our deeds.”
The impact of Smith’s donation reached beyond the Class of 2019. The college used the gift as part of its broader effort to address student loan debt through the Morehouse Student Success Program.
The program was designed to accept donations from other people who wanted to help students reduce or eliminate their college debt. According to Thomas, Smith’s announcement encouraged people to contact the college and ask how they could contribute, even if they could not give millions of dollars.
The program also included research to study how reducing student debt could affect graduates’ lives. Participating members of the Class of 2019 would be compared with graduates from the Class of 2018 to examine changes in their career decisions and other life outcomes.
The goal was to learn more about what happens when students leave college with less debt and more financial freedom.
Smith’s gift was part of a longer record of support for education and other causes. In January 2019, he had donated $1.5 million to Morehouse for a scholars program and a campus park. He also committed $50 million to Cornell University, his undergraduate alma mater, in 2016. Cornell later named its School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in his honor.
Before entering the investment business, Smith studied chemical engineering at Cornell and earned an MBA from Columbia University in 1994. He later worked at Goldman Sachs, where he focused on technology investments, before founding Vista Equity Partners in 2000.
In the years following the Morehouse donation, Smith also called for broader solutions to the student debt crisis. In a June 2024 essay, he explained that one-time gifts could provide major relief but would not solve the nationwide problem on their own.
He helped establish the Student Freedom Initiative, which works to expand affordable education opportunities, particularly for students at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other participating institutions. The initiative offers financial support, including loans with flexible repayment terms for eligible students studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Related: Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine donated $70 million to USC in 2013, creating the Iovine and Young Academy for arts and technology
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