A proposed federal database for tracking college students could ease the application process and make institutions more accountable - but some say it will come at the cost of student privacy.
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced the creation of such a database as one of her priorities last week.
The database would collect individual student data from universities and then provide statistics based on these data to policymakers and prospective college applicants.
But several higher-education groups consider the proposal a threat to student privacy.
Tony Pals, spokesman for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, an advocacy group for private colleges, said the creation of the database would take a student's information out of his hands and give it to the government.
The database could monitor students' grades, transcripts and whether they were to drop out of classes or take time off, he said.
"If you get an incomplete in Psych 101, the government is going to know about it," he said. "I haven't heard any compelling reasons for creating this thing. It's unclear how it will benefit consumers, lawmakers or taxpayers."
Pals added that the estimated cost of the database is up to $100 million.
Some are supportive of the proposal, however. Constantine Curris, president of advocacy group the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, wrote in support of the proposed database in a public letter.
"We know that all institutions will benefit from valid data that accurately explain the good work they are doing and pinpoint areas for improvement," Curris wrote.
He added that the database "is the most effective and efficient way to get crucial information about student success and financial aid." Representatives of the association would not provide additional comment.
But Barry Toiv, spokesman for the Association of American Universities, said the Department of Education should find a way of obtaining useful information without compromising privacy.
He agreed, though, that the information the database would collect will help the department to analyze graduation rates and the cost of attending college. This will allow policymakers to know how effectively federal financial aid is being used and will aid families in selecting colleges, he said.
Statistics about individual colleges would be made public on the Education Department's Web site, according to the proposal.
Toiv said he sees the potential benefits of data collection, but "students have reasonable expectations of privacy, especially at private universities."
The Education Department maintains that student privacy will not be an issue, however.
The database "would not identify individual students, nor be tied to personal information. It wouldn't enable you to go online and find out how Margaret Spellings did in her political science class," according to Spellings' prepared remarks for a speech she gave last week.
Furthermore, the database will promote transparency in its publishing of graduation rates in all American colleges, she argued.
It would be similar to both the higher education databases that 40 individual states operate and to the existing federal database of K-12 students, Spellings said in her speech.
Pennsylvania is one of the 10 states that does not have such a college student database, according to Education Department spokeswoman Jane Glickman.
