Loras College, Clarke College, and the University of Dubuque request support from NSF for connection of their campuses to CICnet as an affiliate member through the University ofIowa. CICNet is the midlevel network located in this part of the state of Iowa that will provide operations and network information services. It will give the colleges a 56 thousand bits per second connection to the NSFNET, a high speed (1.5 - 45 million bits per second) National Backbone network. The colleges needs greater functionality and network speed to be able to access supercomputers, libraries, and make file transfers along with being able to implement a more reliable mail system. Students and faculty research will benefit from the link. This is also a unique opportunity for the school to explore innovative educational resources.***//