The Monday interview: Shirley Ort

Thanks to the brainchild of one woman, thousands of low-income students are able to graduate from UNC completely debt-free. That woman is the associate provost and director of scholarships and student at UNC: Shirley Ort.

Ort has a magnetic personality, and she exudes her passion for making higher education as affordable and accessible as possible, a passion which is displayed through her impact on this University.

In an attempt to simplify the message that UNC is affordable due to its strong financial aid program, Ort wanted to cut through the “financial aid speak” that loses people in the process.

Instead, she wanted to create a program where high-achieving, low-income students could receive financial aid through grants instead of loans. That means graduating debt-free through the Carolina Covenant Program — simple as that.

“Students who don’t have money would be able to see themselves at Carolina and would not self-preclude,” Ort said. “We think we succeeded.”

For the first public university to attempt such a program, “It was not a hard thing to get through,” Ort said. “I took an idea to a administration who already had the motivation to do it.”

She credits the program’s establishment in 2003 to the fact that UNC has historically valued financial aid and accessible higher education.

“I think it goes back to our roots. I didn’t understand this until I came here, how deeply rooted in access for the average citizen it is,” Ort said. “When we talk about the people’s University, it means something here; it’s not just a marketing slogan.”

This culture is exemplified by the support Ort said the program has received from all corners of the UNC community. “At Carolina, it was the whole University that really rallied around doing this,” Ort said, in what she described as the “University embrace.”

Carolina Covenant Scholars’ successes continually justify that support. Before the program, there was a 17.6 gap in four-year graduation rates between low-income and higher-income students. Since the program’s establishment, that gap has narrowed to 6.3 percent.

The effect on the scholars is just as dramatic. Before the program, 56.7 percent of the students who would have qualified for the program graduated in four years. Thanks to the robust financial assistance, mentorships, program support and work study opportunities Carolina Covenant offers, 74.2 percent of the scholars graduate in four years.

The low retention rate for black males at UNC has been an issue of concern for administrators and faculty. But astonishingly, black male retention rates in the program have nearly doubled since its establishment.

“Most Covenant Scholars feel proud to be here and to affiliate with the program,” Ort said.

She pointed out that everyone wears UNC shirts, no matter what financial background people come from. She called this a great equalizer. “The campus values diversity, and that comes in a lot of ways. One way is socioeconomic diversity. I think whenever you have a part of your community making this kind of headway academically, it makes the place an academically enriched and invigorating place to be.”

This is the University she knows. The recent press coverage and the newspaper headlines about various scandals at UNC, including an Office of Civil Rights investigation and past instances of academic fraud, have not reflected what she knows and sees on a daily basis.

“I believe this place to be good from the inside out, and I believe we’ll heal from the inside out.”

But while the recent budget cuts have also rocked the University, Ort is confident that financial aid and the Carolina Covenant Scholars program will stay a priority. The funding comes from the financial aid money students would already get without the program, as well as Pell grants, state grants, federal work studies and private donations. Ort hopes everyone sees the value in maintaining the funding.

“I hope we don’t foreclose opportunities for our young people because we can’t see where the money’s coming from easily.”