Graduating seniors must follow a new graduation procedure this year in order to receive their diplomas on time.

Students graduating in December have until Aug. 29 to fill out a graduation application that is now required to graduate, said Debbie Lettow, commencement coordinator at Iowa State.

In the past, students were required to meet with a graduation evaluator to discuss and review their audit.

This year students will not have to meet with an evaluator unless they desire to do so, she said.

“If students feel that they need to talk to someone about graduation, we have no problem setting up a meeting with one of the evaluators,” Lettow said.

“We are just hoping to help the student anyway we can, ” she said.

Lettow added that many students do not have the time to set up an appointment because of their schedules and work conflicts.

“We have a lot of students that student teach and that are working on internships,” she said.

“Setting up a meeting has been an inconvenience in the past,” she said.

Students can pick up the applications in Alumni Hall or through their adviser or college, she said.

After the graduation office receives the application, an evaluator will check over the student’s audit.

Then the evaluator will contact the student with the pertinent graduation information.

The application deadline for December graduates is Aug. 29, and the deadline for May graduates will be during the first week of the Spring semester.

Summer graduates will have a May 15 deadline.

Lettow said letters will be sent to seniors who miss the deadline.

“If a student fails to fill out an application before the deadline, our office will make up a list of names and addresses,” she said.

“We will then send out a letter with an application to the student,” she said.

Lettow added that graduate students already follow the new process.

“The procedure has worked very well with the graduate students,” she said.

“We are anticipating the same results by adding the undergraduates to the same procedure.”

Within a year, the graduation office hopes students will feel comfortable with the application procedure.

“Hopefully this new procedure will save students a lot of time,” Lettow said.

“In the end it’s going to be a lot easier on them.”