Investing in programs that would benefit vulnerable students and keep creating revenue for years is part of the plan that Long Beach City College is doing with the $30 million gift it received by McKenzie Scott last year.
Mackenzie Scott, who is the ex wife of amazon founder Jeff Bezos and got most of her fortune after their divorce which left her with $38 billion, gifted LBCC $30 million in June of 2021 in an effort to donate half of her fortune to schools across the country.
The LBCCD board of trustees worked with people both inside and outside of the school to create funding priorities and recommendations for the best use of the money.
Composed of students, faculty and community members from the district, the advisory committee took two months to create three different ways in which the money would be distributed.
“Creating or starting new programs that would benefit the vulnerable students, provide race consciousness and equity minded practices,” said Ennette Morton, community member of the advisory group.
The advisory committee took 179 suggestions, through forms from students, employees, community members and alumni to help set up a plan for the money. With some of those suggestions including basic needs support, like housing or campus programs and services.
One of the priorities would be scholarships for disproportionately impacted students such as foster youth, low-income students, veterans, Native American, African American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander or students that are part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Part of the recommendations made from the committee were to use $5 million for the promise program, which allows students to have two years of free tuition and scholarships for students who need it the most. This recommendation would benefit students who are from local high schools who enroll in at least 12 units at LBCC per semester.
Another $5 million was recommended for strategic investments, which included Equity Innovation Grants and Institutional Priorities.
Each year up to $600,000 would be available for grants within a five year span.
The Student Equity Subcommittee is currently looking into an annual process to award mini grants of up to $5,000 a year through an application process.
A subgroup of this subcommittee would be responsible for developing the grant application process with institutional support in Spring 2022. By Fall 2022, applications would be available.
A memorandum, which is a written message in business, is what the district did to make sure that the money is spent as planned.
Other things that the gift would go towards are long term investment that would create revenue for many years.
“About $20 million a year, we should be able to average somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million a year in interest that’s made on that gift,” said Mike Munoz, superintendent president of LBCC.
Munoz believed that up until now, the decision making on how the money is being spent has been correct and will be beneficial towards the school.
“Our approach collects the collective wisdom of many people on campus both students, internal faculty and staff and both community members,” Munoz said. “What I appreciate about our process is we had a very transparent process and we had a process that engaged multiple stakeholders.”