Stanford University’s new Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Richard Shaw has several innovative plans in store for the admissions process, but said he feels it’s important to get acquainted with the University before implementing any major alterations.

“My first intent is to keep my ears and my eyes open,” Shaw said in an interview with The Daily. “My objective, at least initially, is to get a good sense of the place, to get a strong understanding of all of the things that Stanford represents.”

Shaw, who has 33 years of experience working in undergraduate admissions and was previously the dean of admission and financial aid at Yale University, took his post three weeks ago after Robin Mamlet stepped down from the position at the end of the 2004-2005 academic year.

While Shaw said that time will be needed for him and his staff to evaluate what needs improving, he said he feels that one area that he intends to work on is national outreach.

“The reality in this is that Stanford is an extraordinary institution,” Shaw said. “The objective is just to bring the truth about this place to all of these communities and to take advantage of all of the exceptional constituents that we have as far as carrying the word.”

One strategy that Shaw hopes to implement is to have students take part in recruiting activities when they are home on vacation.

“Undergraduates should be involved in representing Stanford both here and in their communities,” he said. “There’s nobody more powerful and more convincing than someone who goes to school here.”

Freshman Vivian Chen agreed with Shaw’s approach to outreach.

“There’s no substitute for an actual student that people can relate to,” she said.

“Most importantly in all of this is having a human touch,” Shaw added. “It’s a matter of really communicating effectively, really bringing Stanford to people in a human way with warmth and truth and ensuring they have good information when they make their final decision.”

Shaw further explained that figuring out how to promote outreach also entails sizing up how other universities entice freshmen.

“Part of the goal is to understand the competition as well, and I have some opportunity to do that since I was the competition,” he said. “I think that I have a very strong sense of the marketplace and that’s a clear asset for Stanford.”

Even though more Stanford students come from California than any other state, Shaw said that it’s important to continue focusing on California while still marketing in less represented areas.

“I don’t want to discount in any way the importance of California,” he said. “But I do think we can do some more effective work in other parts of the country as well, where we become more of a player relative to other very competitive institutions.”

Sophomore Emily Campbell agreed with Shaw’s emphasis on recruiting across the country.

“When I was looking at college on the East Coast, I spoke to people at Harvard and a lot of them weren’t even considering Stanford,” she said. “While at Stanford, many students were considering Harvard.”

Shaw further explained that he hopes to revamp the admissions process by making it high-tech.

“All of our applications will now be Web-based,” he said. “Not only the demographic information, but all recommendations.”

Nonetheless, Shaw emphasized that many of the criteria for a student’s admission will stay the same.

“We look for the same things year-in, year-out,” Shaw said. “Strength of intellectual depth, the things they do both inside and outside of the classrooms, the rigor of the experience they’ve been involved with, the context of where they learn. All of these things will continue to be part of our consideration.”

In addition to placing Stanford’s applications on the internet, Shaw hopes to place admission decisions online like many other universities do.

“I remember mailing things to Canada and they never arrived; internationally, there’s no other way to communicate other than electronically,” he said. “I believe that technology is how students communicate. I get some disagreement about it, but I think my objective is to have a delivery system that’s pretty immediate.”

While most students agree that e-mail is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to receive their admissions status, some still prefer the traditional, stuffed envelope as their first indication.

“I would definitely not like to get an e-mail instead of a packet,” said junior Ryan Tibshirani. “It’s something about receiving tangible proof.”

Campbell agreed with Tibshirani’s perspective.

“It was really gratifying to get it in the mail,” she said. “I found it more exciting than checking the ones online. But I understand how it’d be more fair and quicker so that everyone gets their decision at the same time.”

Shaw also discussed the need to evaluate Stanford’s financial aid policy, specifically with regards to Stanford’s international students.

“Only a few schools in the country are need-blind for international students,” Shaw said. “Stanford understands the value of having a completely need-blind policy, so that’s on the agenda. We have to continue to provide opportunity and not dismiss our responsibility to a broad spectrum of socioeconomic status.”

Shaw expressed his optimism that a lot of hard work will be poured into making improvements to the entire admissions system.

“We have a whole new environment,” Shaw said, referring to the recent move of the Admissions’ office from Old Union to the Bakewell building. “It maybe is representative of a renewed interest in the work of Admissions and Financial Aid and Visitor Services. We’ve gotten very strong support from the President and the Provost and the Faculty committee that advised this operation.”