When it comes to changes in Washington University’s stance on socioeconomic diversity in recent years, many are quick to identify as the impetus Provost Holden Thorp. Widely viewed as Chancellor Mark Wrighton’s heir presumptive, Thorp has held the position of provost at the University since July 2013, when he left his job as chancellor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Thorp, who was once nationally ranked for his Rubik’s cube-solving skills, encourages people to call him “Holden,” runs a fairly active Twitter account that boasts more than 7,000 followers and still takes time out of his schedule to play the electric bass guitar, even performing in the recent Performing Arts Department production “Company.”

But in his position as provost at Washington University, Thorp has made it his mission to promote socioeconomic diversity through efforts to increase financial aid and representation. He believes higher education is a valuable resource for society, and increasing socioeconomic diversity is what he sees as the most effective way to offer it to the most people.

“I firmly believe there are two main reasons why higher education is incredibly important to our country. One is the fostering of original ideas, and the other is providing opportunity to the people of America, to find what they love and go do it. If not everyone has access to that in the same way, then we’re not doing our job,” Thorp said. “Originality and opportunity are the two things that get me up out of bed and bring me to work every morning, and socioeconomic diversity is a critical part of making sure that the University provides opportunity to everybody we’re supposed to provide it for.”

As students have continued to raise concerns about the University’s lack of socioeconomic diversity and publications like The New York Times have emphasized Washington University’s low numbers of Pell Grant-eligible students, Thorp has been swift to create action plans to create change.

Along with other administrators and some student cooperation, Thorp generated a plan to bring the Pell Grant-eligible percentage in the entering freshman class to 13 percent by 2020 from the low percentage of 8 percent in the class of 2018. Washington University has already made progress toward this goal, reaching 11.5 percent of its freshman population as Pell-eligible.

But Thorp isn’t stopping there. He plans to move beyond tuition-based financial aid to support students during their time at the University in other ways.

“We don’t want people’s ability to pay to compromise any academic experience that they want to have here,” Thorp said. “I’ve always been a big believer in that when the University admits somebody, we’re making a very important commitment to them, that they’re a part of our community…They’re a part of the Wash. U. community forever. And we have to make sure that everybody feels that commitment the same way.”

Thorp stresses that the need-blind vs. need-aware admissions dilemma is less important than many would insist; rather, he says, we should focus on the overarching goal of helping more low-income students.

“Need-blind is coming to be a bit like color-blind,” Thorp said. “We’ve moved beyond thinking about color-blind, and I think in a sense Wash. U. is ahead of the curve with thinking about need blind, because we need to know the students who have need and what we’re doing the entire time they’re here.”

Thorp, who attended the California Institute of Technology for graduate school and served as chancellor at UNC at Chapel Hill, came to Washington University from a public university background and a different perspective about financial aid and tuition costs but has always kept the issue of providing for low-income students at the top of his agenda.

“When I left [UNC], I told my successor, ‘Your number one job is to protect the financial aid program.’ I’ve always fought for financial aid and for the rights and opportunities of low-income students to experience higher education,” Thorp said. “That’s something I think about every day when I come to work, and that’s been true the whole time I’ve been in administration.”