University President John Hennessy said he is interested in reviewing a series of suggested reforms put forth by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings last month, a list that includes retooling financial aid and increased focus on science education.

“It is a beneficial exercise to stop and examine the state of U.S. higher education and what can be done to improve our colleges and universities,” Hennessy wrote in an email to The Daily. “The report made a number of recommendations and merits further review, but several of their recommendations appear to be worthy of serious consideration in the near term.”

The recommendations include calls for increased federal investment in student financial aid, increased federal investment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields and a database for colleges and universities to swap ideas and pool experience.

Higher education has long been the domain of states and private interests, with the federal government largely staying out of the way. But recent studies have highlighted increasing tuition costs, inequality for economically disadvantaged applicants and poor graduation rates across the country. While nearly two-thirds of high school graduates enroll in a two- or four-year college, more than 40 percent drop out. The Department of Education report demonstrated that even literacy capacity and reading comprehension are declining amongst college graduates.

While Stanford does not suffer from these most of these shortcomings, the administration and Board of Trustees are moving to address some of these concerns, especially those regarding college preparation for K-12 students.

“I agree that this is a serious national problem and I believe that our nation’s leading universities need to play an important role in bringing improvement to our nation’s schools,” Hennessy said. “To that end, we have recently announced a $20 million loan forgiveness program to offset the cost for students who enroll in yearlong Stanford Teacher Education Program.”

Chief among Spellings’ concerns was the inequality of the financial aid system, pointing to the complicated aid application process. The department’s report outlined a plan to work with states to use existing income and tax data to help students complete the application for federal aid in significantly less time.

Hennessy agreed with Spellings’ concerns over financial aid, but emphasized Stanford’s ongoing commitment to need-based applicants.

“Stanford is one of a handful of colleges and universities that has maintained its commitment to need-based financial aid and, as a result, we have put programs in place that allow us to attract the best students regardless of their ability,” he said.

Director of Financial Aid Karen Cooper said she was aware of the current complexities and was supportive of efforts to reduce these ambiguities.

“We would like to see a thoughtful review of federal application forms and policies as suggested by Secretary Spellings,” Cooper said. “The strongest step the federal government can take to support access for low-income students is to increase the value of the federal Pell Grant as recommended by the commission.”

This fall, Hennessy took a step toward implementing a more flexible financial aid program by eliminating financial contributions for families with incomes below $45,000.

“This was an effort to reach out to those low-income students who find the financial aid process intimidating and confusing in an effort to encourage them to apply and investigate the opportunities available to them,” Cooper said.

Data from the 2005-06 academic year shows that Stanford undergraduates received nearly $76 million in scholarship aid from an array of University sources. This contrasts with the slightly more than $5 million that Stanford students received in federal assistance, Hennessy said.

In her report, Spellings also encouraged the creation of an information-sharing database to allow colleges and universities to learn what their peer institutions are doing to address universal issues like financial aid and grade inflation. Spellings argued that a Web site allowing in-depth comparisons between schools, ranging from student progress to teacher salaries, could be useful.

The database has been met with some support on the national level, but others in the education community are worried that too much cohesion could jeopardize the individuality of schools.

“I will monitor carefully new federal efforts to collect data,” Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), a former president of the University of Tennessee and one-time U.S. education secretary under President George H. W. Bush, said in a press statement following the department’s report. “Information for consumers is a good thing. But American higher education does not need a barrage of new regulations imposing new costs so someone in Washington can try to figure out how to improve the Harvard classics department and Nashville Auto Diesel College — both of whose students are eligible for federal grants and loans.”