An HBCU is showing up and showing out for their students.
According to a report by ABC News, Oklahoma-based HBCU Langston University announced the clearance of over $4.5 million in student debt balances. The funds will be used from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) to cancel student account balances. According to the outlet, the amount of cancelled debt totals $4,587,485.
The first-time Langston University canceled student account balances was in August 2021, with a clearance amount of $4,654,112.
The news came via a memo from the school’s president Kent J. Smith, president, saying the institution “has sought ways to lessen the burden and remove barriers to degree completion” for students. It continues: The new clearance “includes students not currently enrolled at the institution as well as those enrolled during summer 2022 or fall 2022 who will now be cleared of any hold preventing them from receiving an official transcript due to a balance.”
The latest initiative will impact students enrolled throughout the summer 2022, fall 2022 and spring 2023 semesters per ABC News.
Langston University is the only HBCU in Oklahoma and nearly 70% of the student body are first-generation college students.
This follows in the vein of other grand moves to help alleviate barriers to success for Black students. As previously reported by ESSENCE, billionaire businessman and philanthropist Robert F. Smith gifted $15 million to Cornell’s College of Engineering to support underrepresented students. Additionally, in 2019 he paid the outstanding tuition costs of Morehouse’s entire graduating class. This newest initiative is just another example of his deep investment in the enrichment of Black lives.