U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., answered questions for close to an hour yesterday on issues ranging from the cost of higher education to the intelligence dispute surrounding the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to stem cell research.

Specter, chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee on education, told the crowd of about 80 in the HUB-Robeson Center that he helped increase the amount of the federal Pell Grant, an education grant based on financial need from $2,500 to $4,050, among other efforts to make education attainable for everyone.

"Every young person, and older Americans as well, should have as much education as they can assimilate," he said.

He said loans are extremely high, and he supports forgiveness of loans for things such as working in a rural area or teaching in a "difficult" area after graduation.

Specter spoke about the need to keep working toward establishing and rebuilding Iraq.

"Democracies are contagious," he said. "If we are able to establish a democracy in Iraq, it will be a huge achievement."

Specter also said the fighting in Iraq would not stop if troops withdrew from Iraq, but rather, the location of the fighting would just change.

"The situation in Iraq attracts Islam terrorists, and I believe it is correct that we will fight them in Iraq, or we will fight them in the U.S.," he said.

Specter co-sponsored the Homeland Security Act, which created the new Department of Homeland Security after Sept. 11. The bill included a revision, which was never passed, putting the Secretary of Homeland Security in charge of all the other intelligence agencies in an effort to centralize information.

"Had we put all our information in a central pool, I think 9/11 could have been prevented," he said.

Specter said he hopes the commission that is currently investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will work on the prevention of another attack rather than pass the "blame game" around Washington, D.C., which he said would not solve anything.

Several students from the Global AIDS Initiative, a club on campus, questioned Specter about his stance on AIDS.

Specter said this upcoming year is the beginning of a five-year, $15 billion plan that will send money to hospitals and other locations in Africa to help with AIDS treatment.

Specter answered questions from the audience for all but 10 minutes of the hour during which he spoke.

Ben Patience (sophomore-business management) said the Global AIDS Initiative wants $5.4 billion, with $1.2 billion of that going to the United Nations global fund, which is the amount U.N. experts say the United States should give.

Patience said the senator was not as prepared to answer their questions surrounding the AIDS issue as he should have been, especially because Specter said he knew the questions were coming when answering them.

"He gave some answers, but he dodged others," Patience said.

Sean Misko, president of the Political Science Association, which sponsored the event, said he thought Specter was very prepared.

"He attempted to answer all the questions posed to him, and when he wasn't sure, he said he would look into it," he said.

Specter also addressed issues of stem-cell research and same-sex marriage.

He said stem-cell research should be expanded upon because only certain funds can be used for the research. He said he understands the controversy surrounding the research, but it could help cure people who are dying from cancer and other diseases.

On the issue of same-sex marriages, Specter said he is against the idea but believes now is not the time for a constitutional amendment.

"I believe marriage is an institution between a man and a woman," he said. "However, a constitutional amendment talk is premature based off the Massachusetts decision."

Overall, Misko said Specter covered a wide variety of topics.

"I thought the senator was responsive to student questions on a wide variety of issues," he said. "I was pleased he discussed foreign policy and the disturbing intellectual failures [surrounding Sept. 11] in a frank and honest manner."

Specter is up for re-election this November against U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who spoke on campus last month. The Pennsylvania primary elections are on April 27.