57326 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 185 / Friday, September 22, 2000 / Notices

application will address how the

applicant plans to document student

eligibility, including documentation of

attendance.

6. Another major concern of the

Department is that an applicant be

committed as an institution to the

success of its proposed activities. One

way for an institution to demonstrate its

commitment would be for the

institution to include with its

application a letter from its chief

executive officer (or comparable official)

expressing support for the application

and acknowledgement of the

responsibilities that the institution

would assume if it were approved.

Correspondingly, in the case of a

consortium applicant, the submission of

such a letter from the chief executive

officer (or comparable official) of each of

the participating institutions would

demonstrate such commitment.

Regional Meetings

Interested parties are invited to attend

one of four regional meetings where

information, advice, and technical

assistance will be provided about

applying to participate in the Distance

Education Demonstration Program and

providing Federal financial aid to

students enrolled in distance education

programs. The regional meetings will

begin with a brief description of

eligibility requirements for the Distance

Education Demonstration Program and

the application and selection processes

for this program. Individuals will then

be provided an opportunity to ask

questions regarding the application

process and other matters relating to the

Distance Education Demonstration

Program. Department of Education staff

with expertise on various issues relating

to the Distance Education

Demonstration Program will be

available to answer these questions.

Questions regarding eligibility and

administration of Title IV, HEA student

financial assistance programs may be

relevant to institutions’ interest in

applying for the Distance Education

Demonstration Program. Accordingly,

during the course of the meeting,

Department staff will also address

questions that relate generally to the

administration of aid in distance

education programs.

For each of the meetings the

Department of Education has reserved a

limited number of hotel rooms at a

special per diem room rate. To reserve

these rates (see the exception for the

November meeting) be certain to inform

the hotel that you are attending the

regional meetings with the Department

of Education. The meeting sites are

accessible to individuals with

disabilities. The Department will

provide a sign language interpreter at

each of the scheduled hearings. An

individual with a disability who will

need an auxiliary aid or service other

than an interpreter to participate in the

meeting (e.g., assistive listening device,

or materials in an alternative format)

should notify the contact person listed

in this notice at least two weeks before

the scheduled meeting date. Although

the Department will attempt to meet a

request received after that date, the

requested auxiliary aid or service may

not be available because of insufficient

time to arrange it.

Dates, Times, and Locations of Regional

Meetings

1. October 18, 2000, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.,

Office of Postsecondary Education

Conference Center, 1990 K Street, NW.,

8th floor, Washington, DC 20006. Rooms

available for October 17 at Embassy

Square, 2000 N Street, NW.,

Washington, DC, 20036. Call (202) 659–

9000 for reservations. Sleeping room

rate $118.00 plus taxes. Reservations

must be made by October 1. Identify

yourself as a participant in the

Department of Education regional

meeting.

2. November 1, 2000, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.,

Albuquerque, New Mexico prior to the

annual meeting of the Western

Cooperative for Educational

Telecommunications. Hyatt Regency

Hotel, 330 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque,

NM 87102, 800–233–1234 or reserve

online: http://www.hyatt.com/albuq/gwich/index.html Reference Western

Cooperative for Educational

Telecommunications in making

reservation. Sleeping room rates, single

$118 plus taxes; double $128 plus taxes.

Reservations must be made by

September 30.

3. November 9, 2000, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.,

Chicago, Illinois, Congress Plaza Hotel,

520 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL

60605, 800–635–1666, (312) 427–3800.

Sleeping room rate, $130 plus taxes.

Reservations must be made by October

8, 2000. Identify yourself as a

participant in the Department of

Education regional meeting.

4. November 29, 2000, 9 a.m. to 1

p.m., Seattle, Washington, Claremont

Hotel, 2000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle, WA

98121, 877–448–8601, (206) 448–8600.

Sleeping room rate $104 plus taxes.

Reservations must be made by

November 13. Identify yourself as a

participant in the Department of

Education regional meeting.

Electronic Access to This Document

You may view this document, as well

as all other Department of Education

documents published in the Federal

Register, in text or Adobe Portable

Document Format (PDF) on the Internet

at either of the following sites:

http://ocfo.ed.gov/fedreg.htm

http://www.ed.gov/news.html

To use the PDF version you must have

Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is

available free at either of the previous

sites. If you have questions about using

the PDF version, call the U.S.

Government Printing Office (GPO), toll

free at 1–888–293–6498 or in the

Washington, DC area at (202) 512–1530.

Note: The official version of this document

is the document published in the Federal

Register. Free internet access to the official

edition of the Federal Register and the code

of Federal Regulations is available on GPO

Access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/

index.html

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1093.

A. Lee Fritschler,

Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary

Education.

[FR Doc. 00–24341 Filed 9–21–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No. 84.305T]

Office of Educational Research and

Improvement (OERI); Field-Initiated

Studies (FIS) Education Research

Grant Program; Notice of Application

Review Procedures for New Awards for

Fiscal Year (FY) 2001

SUMMARY: On July 14, 2000 we

published in the Federal Register (64

FR 43957) a notice inviting applications

for new awards for FY 2001 for the FIS

Education Research Grant Program. The

procedures governing the review of

applications are contained in 34 CFR

part 700. This notice explains

modifications to those procedures that

OERI will use to review applications for

this competition.

Application Review Procedure

OERI will use a one-tier review

process for the FIS program competition

for FY 2001. Applications will be

assigned to review panels where the

expertise of the panel matches the topic

of the application. Within each panel,

each application will be reviewed by at

least three reviewers. Three selection

criteria were included in the application

package—National Significance, Quality

of the Project Design, and Quality and

Potential Contributions of Personnel.

Reviewers will weigh the three selection

criteria equally to rate each application

as either—

(1) Exceptionally high quality,

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 185 / Friday, September 22, 2000 / Notices 57327

(2) High quality,

(3) Moderate quality, or

(4) Low quality.

To construct the funding slate, an

average numerical score will be

determined for each application through

the following procedure. For each

application, a numerical value of 3 will

be assigned for each rating of

exceptionally high quality that the

application receives, a numerical value

of 2 will be assigned for each rating of

high quality that the application

receives, a numerical value of 1 will be

assigned for each rating of moderate

quality that the application receives,

and a numerical value of 0 will be

assigned for each rating of low quality

that the application receives. Then, for

each application, the total of the

numeric scores the application receives

will be divided by the number of

reviewers who rated that application to

determine the average score for that

application.

For this competition, potential

applicants were invited to submit letters

of intent. In the letter of intent,

applicants identified the panel they

thought was best suited to review their

application. Applicants are hereby

notified that the data in the letters of

intent were collected for administrative

purposes only. OERI reserves the right

to assign any application to any panel

where the agency believes the reviewers

are best qualified to review that

application.

Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking

In accordance with the

Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C.

553), it is the practice of the Secretary

to offer interested parties the

opportunity to comment on proposed

regulations. However, because this

notice merely establishes procedural

requirements for review of applications

and does not create substantive policy,

proposed rulemaking is not required

under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(A).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Elizabeth Payer, Office of Educational

Research and Improvement, U.S.

Department of Education, 555 New

Jersey Avenue, NW., room 502e,

Washington, DC 20208–5645.

Telephone: (202) 219–1310 or via

Internet: Elizabeth_Payer@ed.gov.

If you use a telecommunications

device for the deaf (TDD), you may call

the Federal Information Relay Service

(FIRS) at 1–800–877–8339.

Individuals with disabilities may

obtain this document in an alternative

format (e.g., Braille, large print,

audiotape, or computer diskette) on

request to the program contact person

listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT. 

Electronic Access to This Document

You may view this document, as well

as all other Department of Education

documents published in the Federal

Register, in text or Adobe Portable

Document Format (PDF) on the Internet

at either of the following sites:

http://ocfo.ed.gov/fedreg.htm

http://www.ed.gov/news.html

To use PDF you must have Adobe

Acrobat Reader, which is available free

at either of the previous sites. If you

have questions about using PDF, call the

U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO),

toll free, at 1–888–293–6498; or in the

Washington, DC area at (202) 512–1530.

Note: The official version of this document

is the document published in the Federal

Register. Free Internet access to the official

edition of the Federal Register and the Code

of Federal Regulations is available on GPO

Access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/

index.html

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C.

6031(c)(2)(B).

Dated: September 19, 2000.

C. Kent McGuire,

Assistant Secretary for Educational Research

and Improvement.

[FR Doc. 00–24391 Filed 9–21–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Environmental Management SiteSpecific Advisory Board, Nevada

AGENCY: Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of open meeting.

SUMMARY: This notice announces a

meeting of the Environmental

Management Site-Specific Advisory

Board (EM SSAB), Nevada Test Site.

The Federal Advisory Committee Act

(Pub. L. No. 92–463, 86 Stat. 770)

requires that public notice of these

meetings be announced in the Federal

Register.

DATES: Wednesday, October 4, 2000,

6:30 p.m.–9:00 p.m.

ADDRESSES: Conference Center, 1750

South Pahrump Valley Blvd., Pahrump,

Nevada.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kevin Rohrer, U.S. Department of

Energy, Office of Environmental

Management, P.O. Box 98518, Las

Vegas, Nevada 89193–8513, phone:

702–295–0197, fax: 702–295–5300.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Purpose of the Board: The purpose of

the Advisory Board is to make

recommendations to DOE and its

regulators in the areas of environmental

restoration, waste management, and

related activities.

Tentative Agenda:

1. Stewardship.

2. Groundwater.

Copies of the final agenda will be

available at the meeting.

Public Participation: The meeting is

open to the public. Written statements

may be filed with the Committee either

before or after the meeting. Individuals

who wish to make oral statements

pertaining to agenda items should

contact Kevin Rohrer, at the telephone

number listed above. Requests must be

received 5 days prior to the meeting and

reasonable provision will be made to

include the presentation in the agenda.

The Deputy Designated Federal Officer

is empowered to conduct the meeting in

a fashion that will facilitate the orderly

conduct of business. This notice is being

published less than 15 days before the

date of the meeting due to programmatic

issues that needed to be resolved.

Minutes: The minutes of this meeting

will be available for public review and

copying at the Freedom of Information

Public Reading Room, 1E–190, Forrestal

Building, 1000 Independence Avenue,

SW, Washington, DC 20585 between

9:00 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday–Friday,

except Federal holidays. Minutes will

also be available by writing to Kevin

Rohrer at the address listed above.

Issued at Washington, DC on September

19, 2000.

Rachel M. Samuel,

Deputy Advisory Committee Management

Officer.

[FR Doc. 00–24398 Filed 9–21–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Environmental Management SiteSpecific Advisory Board, Oak Ridge

Reservation

AGENCY: Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of open meeting.

SUMMARY: This notice announces a

meeting of the Environmental

Management Site-Specific Advisory

Board (EM SSAB) Oak Ridge. The

Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub.

L. No. 92–463, 86 Stat. 770) requires

that public notice of these meetings be

announced in the Federal Register.

DATES: Wednesday, October 11, 2000, 6

p.m.–9:30 p.m.

ADDRESSES: Garden Plaza Hotel, 215 S.

Illinois Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Dave Adler, Federal Coordinator,