SIUC students will have to wait a few semesters before getting their loan checks electronically transferred to their student accounts, University officials said at Wednesday’s Graduate and Professional Student Council meeting.

Jeff Holder, of the SIUC Controller’s Office, said the University does not have the financial resources available at this time to put student names into the computers for the electronic fund transfer system. He said the University is committed to the system, and the SIUC faculty and staff will be on the system for this fall.

Holder said the electronic fund transfer system would allow SIUC students to have their financial aid checks deposited into their accounts 10 days before the first day of class. He said it is against federal regulations to disperse the money before then.

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Pam Britton, director of Financial Aid, said the Financial Aid Office offers direct deposit to students already, but the electronic fund transfer system would allow students to get their checks even faster.

We hoped to have EFT in place by this October but we had to put it on the back burner, Britton said. The stumbling block is getting the computer system ready.

Britton said the reason it is important for students to get their financial aid checks early is because they need to buy their schoolbooks.

Also at the meeting, GPSC President Bill Karrow said Information Technology and the SIU President’s Office is giving a total of $15,000 worth of computers to all student organizations located in the Student Center.

He said GPSC could expect to pay about $1,173 for the new computer that would be hooked up to the University’s network.