Wiley College Class of 2022 Student Balances Cleared By Anonymous Donor

Wiley College Class of 2022 graduated today with not only their degree but with their balances cleared by an anonymous donor. Over 100 students gathered on the Pemberton Sports Complex Field to participate in Wiley College’s 133rd Commencement Convocation and were surprised when they were informed that their balances were cleared by President & CEO Herman J. Felton, Jr. J.D., Ph.D.

Although Wiley College is committed to access and has reduced its tuition in the past years to $17,500 (tuition, fees, and room and board), students sometimes still will have balances. The COVID-19 Global Pandemic only exacerbated many students’ ability to pay their balances. The announcement of cleared balances for graduates was a welcome surprise as students and parents were demonstrative in the audience when they heard the news.

“Our commitment to our students goes beyond their time while they are enrolled. We are constantly communicating with donors to assist students in these ways so that they can begin their after-college experience with less debt. We are grateful for this anonymous donor who will assist the students in paying off their balances to Wiley College and help us achieve institutional goals of graduating our students with little to no debt .” – President Herman J. Felton, Jr., J.D., Ph.D.

The estimated total for balances owed to the College by the graduating class of 2022 is $300,000.00. The anonymous gift sets graduates on a continued path to success and allows Wiley College to strengthen its commitment to providing an affordable exceptional education. As Wiley College closes the academic semester and prepares for its Sesquicentennial Celebrations beginning in July, this is a great way to end the semester and start the celebration of 150 years of the College’s contributions to the world.

Nate Parker Creates Film and Drama School at HBCU

On Sunday (March 20), Parker announced the Nate Parker School of Film and Drama, which will launch this fall at Wiley College, an historically Black college or university (HBCU).

“If I can create a pipeline toward filmmaking physically through developing the college, having filmmakers be nurtured and cultivated here, and then having somewhere for them to go with respect for them actually being able to engage in filmmaking here in East Texas, then it kind of serves multiple purposes,” Parker told local station KLTV. “You control the moving picture, you control the masses. So really getting them rallied around the idea of reclaiming the narrative of America, specifically through the eyes of people of color.”

Though classes won’t officially start until this fall, the school will host a nine-day summer institute with about 30 high school and college students. Parker has also joined the college’s board of trustees, and local station KLTV reports that he even used the Marshall, Texas, institution’s a capella choir on the soundtrack for his Sundance recordbreaking film “The Birth of a Nation.”

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