Iowa State will be among 100 institutions in the United States that will modify federal aid regulations to better fit the needs of students. The changes will go into effect for the 1996-97 school year.

On Oct. 10, the U.S. Department of Education announced the select institutions would be part of an experimental site program that will allow the schools to be exempt from some federal aid regulations.

“There are 3,500 schools who are eligible for federal aid and there is one regulation to cover all these schools,” said Earl Dowling, ISU’s director of financial aid. “Finally, with this five-year experimental program, we have the chance to prove this one regulation did not fit my students.

“This experimental site program takes student financial money out of Washington, D.C. and puts it in Ames, Iowa.”

Dowling said Iowa State now has a better chance to “administer and manage federal dollars.”

In the past, Dowling said, if students entered school only for the summer term, they received their money in two increments instead of one check at the beginning of the term.

“This happened because there was evidence at some schools that students would get one check at the beginning of the term and then run off with it. But this wasn’t happening at our school,” Dowling said. “Now, ISU will be exempt from this.”

Dowling said next year students will also receive loan counseling over the World Wide Web or telephone instead of having to attend a group session.

“Entering students will never notice the change in the regulations, but current students will see that we are even more efficient than we were before,” he said. Dowling said the regulations will be finalized before the end of the semester, after he puts together ISU’s own experimental site team by the end of the month.

“The team will have the same concept as the direct lending team who did an excellent job. The team will be composed of auditors, as well as people from student affairs, business and finance and the faculty.”