UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Folt: To help the economy, help students graduate

Universities can act as ``catalysts'' to produce the skilled workers that the new Knowledge Economy requires, Carol Folt, Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said at a National Press Club luncheon Tuesday.

Graduation must be an affordable, accessible opportunity for more students, because ``the new Knowledge Economy requires the skills of a college graduate,” she said.

“You have to build universities that draw on the talents” of people of all incomes and backgrounds, Folt said. “You have to get them into the fields that contribute to the knowledge economy.”

Universities, she said, “have to be the catalyst.”

Folt outlined programs at UNC-Chapel Hill that prepare low-income students and those with other disadvantages not just to get into college but to thrive there through graduation and succeed in their careers.

In Folt's analysis, the university’s role in ensuring a good college education begins long before students and professors meet. It must start with students in high school, she said.

“Get them ready for the first year” of college, she urged. “Invest in it.”

For UNC, that means signing up recent graduates for jobs with the Carolina College Advising Corps -- a program of the National College Advising Corps -- working with low-income students, immigrants and others whose family background may not have prepared them for college.

Those advisers fill a gap, Folt said, citing a recent finding that on average, high school counselors have less than five minutes a year to talk with students about their college aspirations.

With income disparities growing and family income the strongest predictor of a student’s graduation, UNC is generous with financial aid. Nearly half of its 18,000 students get help with college costs, according to Folt.

The Carolina Covenant, a program of scholarships, grants and work-study assignments, promises qualified low-income students that they can graduate debt-free. The university also counsels those students after they arrive on campus.

“This is enormously important if you’re going to help students obtain a successful degree,” Folt said. “Keeping the costs low is a way to really attract capable students.”

“I don't think low-income students should be put into a less-than-excellent education,” she said. “Believing in them, investing in them, is a major factor that will determine their success.”