Iowa State’s Peace Corps recruitment program is now operating under the direction of the Peace Corps’ Minneapolis, Minn., office.

A national scale-back has eliminated the Kansas City, Mo., Peace Corps office, which used to oversee the ISU program.

The Minneapolis recruitment office will now administer services to Peace Corps volunteers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. The rest of Kansas City’s former jurisdiction is being divided up among surrounding states.

The change comes at a time of federal budget cutbacks, tightening the Peace Corps’ budget.

ISU recruitment representative Inga Straumanis will now serve the campus from Minneapolis, said David Walker, campus Peace Corps representative.

Walker said ISU’s budget has been cut by $1,000, but Walker added that it “shouldn’t affect things too much.”

“The budget is small and only getting smaller,” he said, “But we’re doing pretty well here at Iowa State.”

Of the 7,100 volunteers employed internationally by the Peace Corps each year, 48 are ISU alumni. Of 30 ISU students who have been nominated for admittance into the federal program this year, 16 are now involved.

The ISU volunteers are spread across all regions of the globe. Fifty-four percent of them are on the American continents, while 41 percent are in Africa and 5 percent are in Europe/Central Asia and the Mediterranean.

But Randall Merideth, public affairs specialist for the Minneapolis office, said programs will be ending, as they do every year. As a consequence of the money crunch, Peace Corps agendas may expand into fewer countries in coming years, Merideth said, but programs for college students won’t change.

Peace Corps currently has the most volunteers it’s had since 1978.

Merideth is confident that programs will continue to grow and change without hindrance from dry financial seasons.

“Since 1961 we’ve done what we could with what we’ve got,” he said.

The ISU Peace Corps office will be presenting information about becoming a volunteer in five upcoming career fairs on campus. Anyone interested in volunteer information should stop by the office in Room 5 of Hamilton Hall between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, or call 294-9339.