One ISU official is confident a new plan will prevent the Legislature’s elimination of the state work-study program from greatly impacting students.

Financial Aid Director Earl Dowling said his department is trying to maximize the federal funding they receive so that no students will be affected by the cut.

“Any student who wants to work can work,” he said.

During the 2000-2001 school year, 3,000 students participated in work study, he said.

Last year, students earned almost $3 million from the work-study program, Dowling said. This funding came from the state and federal governments and from departments in the university that provide work study.

Although the university will still be receiving $2.2 million in federal funds, Dowling said the repercussions of the $438,363 loss to Iowa State in state work-study funds could affect 800 of the students currently eligible for work study.

This loss includes large cutbacks in undergraduate research assistantships, he said.

Dowling said this year there will be a slight increase in the federal work-study funding given to Iowa State, helping to counterbalance the state cut.

He said although the number of work-study jobs available should be similar to last year, other aspects of the program will have to change in order to provide the same opportunities to students with less funding.

Dowling’s plan has two main parts.

First, those not meeting the March 1 financial aid application deadline will not be considered for eligibility as before.

Secondly, the university will not allow any students to go beyond their work-study earning limit as they have in the past.

A $2,400 work-study earning limit has been set for the 2001-2002 school year, Dowling said. This maximum is based on the amount of work-study funding Iowa State receives.

“Ultimately, the students and departments are still in control of how much work-study money will be earned by each student,” he said. “The financial aid department will lose much of the flexibility it had in the past, though.”

Until his plan is officially released, employers both on and off-campus are still uncertain as to how the budget cuts will impact their work-study employment in the upcoming year.

The Ames Public Library, a federally funded employer, hopes not to be affected, said Joyce Fisher, circulation department coordinator. She said the library always tries to hire work-study applicants.

If the reduced funding does reach them, they will be forced to cut back 15 to 20 weekly employment hours, which would result in the hiring of fewer students.

The most obvious impact will be on students who rely on work-study jobs. Not only do cutbacks decrease earning potential, they also eliminate the work experience that work study provides.

Mandi Lingren, sophomore in exercise and sport science, was employed in the medical entomology lab last year through work study.

“I really like my job and have made multiple connections and gotten several references with professors through it,” she said. “I might even change my major because of my experience in the lab.”

Lingren hopes to work in the lab again next year, but with funding cuts there is a chance that she will have to find an off-campus night job, which won’t provide the experience she can get working in the lab.

Interim President Richard Seagrave is worried that there might not be enough off-campus jobs to fill the needs created by an increase in students looking for work.

Debbie Kleitsch, junior in communication studies, is employed through work study as the youth service project coordinator at the Ames-ISU YMCA. She is frustrated by the fact that she doesn’t know what to expect next year and she fears that her after-school children’s program will suffer because of the cuts.

“Eventually the YMCA will suffer, and then I suffer,” she said. “But I can’t just give up on the program because of a lack of funding. I have seen the visible effects of working with these kids and it is all worth it.”