On February 19, the Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees created an ad hoc committee to explore potential uses for the $13 million that remains of philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s $20 million gift to the college. Scott made the donation — the largest in the school’s history — in 2021. The SBCC Foundation recently disclosed that several million dollars were used to fund the Promise program without Board approval, leaving community members to question how the unauthorized spending occurred and what will be done with the remaining money.
Board of Trustees President Jonathan Abboud said an investigation into the unauthorized use of funding is ongoing and the Board will not comment on past spending of Scott funds until that investigation concludes. Instead, the Trustees’ focus was on how to allocate the remaining $13 million.
Trustee Charlotte Gallup-Moore suggested that some of the funding be used to create an endowment benefitting Umoja program students, “the student body with the widest opportunity gaps.” The Umoja program serves Black and African American students at SBCC.
Trustee Jett Black-Maertz suggested the creation of an endowment to support student housing, noting that SBCC students face a worsening housing crisis amid federal cuts to affordable housing funds. Trustee Marco Bonometti, the Board’s student representative, agreed. “Here in Santa Barbara, our rent is only increasing,” he said. “It’s absolutely absurd.”
Abboud supported the use of the remaining money toward the Promise program, describing the scholarship program for local students as “something everybody in our community loves and can get behind.”
While the discussions were early-stage, with no votes on future funding use taking place, board members generally favored the creation of an endowment that would generate income rather than the direct allocation of funds. Abboud estimated an annual return of approximately $650,000 if the board were to place the remaining $13 million into an endowment.
Abboud appointed himself, Black-Maertz, and Board Vice President Kyle Richards to the ad hoc committee, which will report back to the Board with more ideas on how to use Scott’s donation.
