Thomson200/Wikimedia(CNN) - Billionaire Robert Smith has made good on his promise to pay off the student loan debt of the entire 2019 graduating class at Morehouse College by donating $34 million to the historically black men's school in Atlanta.
In addition to paying off the debt of the 2019 graduates, this program will solicit and accept donations to help reduce or eliminate the student loan debt of other Morehouse students, school president David A. Thomas said.
School wants to gauge social impact of debt eliminationWhat Smith did "inspired other individuals to contact us to see if they could take part in the effort to reduce student debt," Thomas told CNN.
There's also a research component to the Student Success Program, which the school will use to track the social impact of student loan reduction or elimination.
A Morehouse student usually graduates with between $35,000 to $40,000 in loan debt, the school said in a press release.