12 board members of the prestigious Fulbright program to promote international education exchange resigned on Wednesday, as they said they were political interference by the Trump administration in the operation.
Members are concerned that the State Department's political appointees who administer the program are acting illegally by awarding Fulbright scholarships to nearly 200 American professors and researchers ready to go to universities and other research institutions overseas this summer, people including New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen said.
The board approved these scholars in the winter after a year-long selection process, people said, and the State Department was supposed to send letters of acceptance by April. But instead, the board learned that the agency's public diplomacy began sending letters of rejection to scholars, they said.
Additionally, the department is considering applications from around 1,200 academics from other countries already approved by the board to come to the United States, people said. These foreign scholars are due to receive a letter of acceptance around April.
A memo written by the board states that “rather than supporting unprecedented actions that are thought to be unacceptable under the law, it compromises US national interests and integrity, undermines its mission and mandates a Congress established 80 years ago for the Fulbright Program.”
The board posted a note online Wednesday morning after sending a letter of resignation to the White House.
The board is also concerned that the budget Secretary of State Marco Rubio is requesting Congress for the next fiscal year will cut spending by the Department of Education and Cultural Affairs, including the Fulbright program, to $50 million from $691 million this year.
The State Department did not reply to a request for comment Wednesday morning.
This action comes as President Trump and his top aides try to bending academic institutions into their ideological beliefs. The State Department's public diplomacy office is run by Darren Beatty, a political appointee who was fired from his job in the first Trump administration after speaking at a meeting attended by white nationalists. He posted social media posts on white complaints, including those who said he was ridiculing Rubio, saying, “If you want to make things work, it has to be a capable white man.”
The administration is attempting to withhold federal funding from several universities, primarily for scientific research, and in some cases demanding changes to the department. Although foreign students and academics were attempted to stop coming to Harvard University, the court temporarily banned the administration from acting on the order.
Rubio ordered the State Department last month to suspend new appointments for students or foreigners applying for exchange visas, but the agency expanded the scrutiny of applicants' social media posts. American universities rely on international students to value the majority of their income and the research expertise of those students and visiting scholars.
Top Trump administration officials say many American universities are too liberal in their curriculum and must insert more conservative ideas into their education, research and employment practices. The administration also dismantled research institutions established by Congress, including the Wilson Center and the American Institute of Peace. A federal judge last month ruled that the administration's USIP guting was illegal.
The Fulbright Program was established in 1946 after a law introduced by J. William Fulbright, a democratic senator in Arkansas. The Fulbright Hayes Act of 1961 formalized the program's legal law. The choices of scholars, teachers and others are said to fall under the authority of the 12 boards appointed by the president.
The nearly 200 scholars receiving letters of rejection are part of a group of around 900 American scholars approved by the board over the winter.
“The bipartisan Fulbright committee was a check on the executives by Congress to ensure that students, researchers and educators are not exposed to the blatant political support that the administration is known to be,” said Shaheen, the top Democrat of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
“We understand and respect the massive resignation of the large Fulbright committee, rather than giving credibility to political and illegal processes, but we are painfully aware that today's movement will change the quality of Fulbright programming and the quality of independent research that has made our country a leader in so many fields,” she added.
Shaheen and the board allegedly violated Congressional Act by rejecting or reviewing already approved scholarship candidates by the State Department, those familiar with the matter said.
The selection process for American academics usually starts with career diplomats in overseas missions and in US educational institutions, and earns for several months until the board of directors essentially grants pro-forma approval over the winter. Throughout Republican and Democrat administrations, the board generally approves candidates submitted by the State Department for a long, strict selection process, avoiding the emergence of political interference.
The United States has 49 bilateral committees established by treaties with other countries to support the selection process and match academics with institutions. Over 35 countries donate more than half of their scholarships.
Once a member has completed his three-year term, the board of directors will be reorganized. The current board members are the appointees of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. as those who began to serve it during the first Trump administration revolved around.
Nearly 200 American scholars who have received letters of denial from the State Department are roughly one-fifth of all American scholars approved by the board over the winter.
Those familiar with the State Department's actions appear to have rejected them based on their stated research topics, including climate change, environmental resilience, migration, gender, race and ethnicity, and homelessness. The topics also include science in science, including biology, agriculture and animal research, according to the board's memo.
The Fulbright Program covers approximately 8,000 academics, students, teachers and researchers from a wide range of categories of scholars, teachers and researchers.
The board sent separate messages to Deputy Secretaries of State Beatty and Christopher Landau last month, people said, expressing concern about weakening the selection process for American scholars.
Most of the American and foreign scholars approved by the board received early signals and acceptance fees from officials, so they were able to arrange leaves from the university and prepare to move abroad for about a year.
