IOWA CITY, Iowa ÷ A federal financial aid provision aimed at denying government money to students with drug convictions hasn't proven to be much of a hurdle at the University of Iowa.

This fall, 10 UI financial aid applicants were initially turned down for assistance under the Higher Education Act measure that denies or limits federal aid for students who have been convicted of drug-related crimes. All the applicants either admitted to a drug conviction or left the question blank on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid forms. They later changed their answers when notified by the university.

"It's a self-reported field," said Catherine Wilcox, the UI associate director of financial aid, adding that the law does not provide any way of verifying an applicant's answer.

The question appears on the financial aid application as a "yes" or "no" field. Applications with a blank or "yes" answer are flagged. They are then contacted by letter explaining that they may not receive aid and are given the opportunity to change the response. There is no method to determine if the corrected response was deliberately falsified to retain eligibility.

Approximately 87,000 students nationwide have been denied federal aid since the provision's implementation in 1998, said Shawn Heller, the national director of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy. An estimated 30,000 were denied loans and grants at the start of this year. Not all of the applicants were necessarily enrolled when their aid applications were rejected.

"Many people in higher education and financial aid strongly oppose even having the question," Wilcox said. "If there's no way of policing it, what purpose does it serve?"