News Release

CHAPEL HILL – Tar Heel basketball coach Roy Williams and his wife Wanda will serve as honorary co-chairs of an effort to create a $10 million endowment for the Carolina Covenant, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s groundbreaking initiative to make a Chapel Hill education possible debt-free for low-income students. The Williamses’ leadership role in the Carolina Covenant Campaign was announced just before tip off at Tuesday’s (Feb. 7) Carolina-Duke men’s basketball game.

Williams, a 1972 Carolina graduate and the nation’s winningest active college coach, already has joined Wanda and their children, Scott and Kimberly, in lending their financial support to the Covenant.

"The Carolina Covenant is special because it opens the doors of Carolina to young people, regardless of one’s financial status," Williams said. "It makes UNC accessible to many students for whom getting an education at Carolina will be a life-changing experience. Wanda, Scott and Katie (Scott’s wife), Kimberly and I wish that everyone who loves Carolina will join our family in fulfilling the Covenant’s promise."

The Carolina Covenant enables students from low-income families to graduate debt-free from UNC through a combination of grants, scholarships and federal work study.

The $10 million campaign to endow the Covenant will generate income to fund the program’s scholarships and other related initiatives. These include grants to cover the cost of mandatory freshman orientation programs, which take place before students’ financial aid packages can take effect, and a mentoring program that matches first-year scholars with faculty and staff. The endowment also will fund training on personal and social skills development, including an etiquette dinner.

The university already has raised more than a third of the $10 million goal for the endowment drive, which is part of the Carolina First Campaign, a comprehensive, multi-year private fund-raising campaign with a goal of $2 billion to support Carolina’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading public university.

"With the Covenant, Carolina made a promise to students that college is affordable, no matter how much money your family makes," UNC Chancellor James Moeser said. "This endowment drive will ensure that we can honor our promise. Coach Williams and Wanda have been great supporters of the Carolina Covenant. I very much appreciate their service as honorary co-chairs."

As honorary co-chairs of the endowment campaign, the Williamses will host an annual dinner for donors. Coach Williams already appears in a 30-second institutional television spot that promotes the Carolina Covenant in broadcasts of UNC athletic events.

The Covenant launched in the fall of 2004 with 224 freshmen. Eligibility requirements have since been expanded to cover a family of four with an annual income of about $37,000 or a single parent who makes about $24,000. That enabled 350 students to enroll as Covenant Scholars in fall 2005. They came to Carolina with an average high school GPA of 4.25.

"Covenant students have exceptional academic credentials, meeting every requirement that all of our students meet," Moeser said. "They belong here, and are proving that every day."

Carolina’s commitment to the Covenant comes against the backdrop of steadily rising college costs. Nationally, the average student loan debt doubled to about $18,000 in just a decade. About one-fifth of the full-time students working log 35 or more hours a week. As a result, many low-income youth abandon plans for college – or drop out – because the burden of that debt and workload is too much.

"North Carolina is competing in a global economy, and an educated population is critical to our success," Moeser said. "The Carolina Covenant shows students and their families that college is possible. We can buck the trend toward increasing loan debt and workload, and enable qualified students to graduate."

Carolina became, in the fall of 2003, the first major public U.S. university to announce plans for a program such as the Covenant. Since then, several universities, including Virginia, Maryland, Nebraska, Harvard and Brown, have created or announced plans for similar programs.

UNC consistently ranks among the national leaders in making education financially accessible to students. In its February issue, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine recognized Carolina – for a fifth consecutive time – the nation’s best value for top-flight academics and affordable cost. Along with offering the Covenant, Carolina meets the full need of middle-income students who qualify for need-based financial aid, with financial aid packages comprised of two-thirds grants and scholarships and one-third loans and work-study. Carolina was the only university in Kiplinger’s study that 100 percent of each student’s financial need.

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Carolina Covenant background: http://www.unc.edu/carolinacovenant/
Kiplinger’s background: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/kiplingers010906.htm

Development Communications contact: Scott Ragland, (919) 962-0027 or scott_ragland@unc.edu
News Services contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093 or lisa_katz@unc.edu