During their opening ceremony on Saturday, more than 100 graduates at Marshall’s Wiley College, Texaslearns that an unnamed donor has paid off student loans for his class.
Wiley College President and CEO Herman J. Felton Jr. told the 2022 graduating class about the news during his commencement speech at a historically black college.
The school posted a clip of the special moment on its Twitter account.
“You’re debt-free; you don’t have to pay a dime for college,” Felton said with applause and applause. “If you had balance, you had a balance. You don’t have a balance now.”
The class of 2022 had a total outstanding of $300,000.
Felton talks about the importance of helping students with rising college costs at One Wiley College Press release,
“Our commitment to our students goes beyond the time they are enrolled,” Felton said. “We are in constant communication with donors to assist students in this way so they can begin their post-college experience with less debt.”
Felton said he is grateful for the anonymous donor, whose donations will help the college “achieve our institutional goals of graduating our students without debt.”
Wiley College did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
While Wiley College reduced its tuition to $17,500, the COVID-19 pandemic eroded students’ ability to pay the balance, according school.
recently the president Joe Biden said his administration is weeks away from a decision on student loan forgiveness.
“I’m looking at tackling some debt reduction. I’m not looking at $50,000 in debt reduction,” Biden said in response to reporters’ questions about how much debt he would cancel per borrower. But I’m in the process of keeping a close eye on whether there will be additional loan waivers, and I’ll have an answer in the next few weeks.”
Philanthropist Mackenzie Scott, before an anonymous donation to Wiley College charity $20 million to Morehouse College in 2020, and billionaire Robert Smith Brilliant $34 million for Morehouse’s graduating class in 2019.