The Fulbright Board of Directors leaves, accusing the administration of Trump of political interference
The dozen members of the board of directors of the prestigious Fulbright program which promotes international educational exchanges resigning on Wednesday due to what they said to be the political interference of the Trump administration in their operations, according to people familiar with issues and a memo of the board of directors obtained by the New York Times.
The members fear that the appointments of the State Department, who manage the program, act illegally by canceling the allocation of Fulbright scholarships to nearly 200 American professors and researchers ready to go to universities and other research institutions abroad from this summer, said the people, including the seniator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire.
The board of directors approved these researchers during the winter after a one -year selection process, and the State Department was supposed to send acceptance letters by April, people said. But instead, the board of directors learned that the agency’s public diplomacy office began to send letters of rejection to researchers based mainly on their research subjects, they said.
In addition, the ministry examines the requests of around 1,200 researchers from other countries that have already been approved by the board of directors to come to the United States, the people said. These foreign scholars were also supposed to receive letters of acceptance around April.
The note written by the Council indicates that the members resign “rather than approving unprecedented actions which, in our opinion, are inadmissible under the law, compromise American national interests and integrity, and undermine the mission and the mandates of the Congress created for the Fulbright program almost 80 years ago”, according to a copy obtained by Times.
The board of directors displayed the online memo on Wednesday morning after sending a letter of resignation to the White House.
The board of directors is also concerned that the budget that the secretary of state Marco Rubio is asking the congress for the next financial year reduces spending on the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which includes the Fulbright program, at $ 50 million, against $ 691 million.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comments on Wednesday.
Actions are involved while President Trump and his best aid seek to fold university institutions to their ideological beliefs. The State Department’s Public Diplomacy Office is led by Darren Beattie, a policy named policy that was dismissed from a job during the first Trump administration after giving a conference at a conference to follow by white nationalists. He has published publications on social networks on white grievances, including one saying that “competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work” and that those ridicule Mr. Rubio.
The administration is trying to retain federal funding, mainly for scientific research, of several universities and, in some cases, requests changes to the services. He tried to prevent foreign students and academics from coming to Harvard University, but a court temporarily prohibited the administration from acting on this order.
Mr. Rubio told the State Department last month to stop taking new appointments for foreign citizens who request student or exchange visas while the agency extends the examination of publications on social networks by the applicants. American universities rely on the tuition fees of foreign students for a large part of their income and appreciate the research expertise of these students and the researchers on the visit.
Trump senior officials say that many American universities are too liberal in their programs and must insert more conservative ideas in their teaching, research and hiring practices. The administration has also dismantled research institutions established by the congress, including the Wilson Center and the American Institute of Peace. A federal judge ruled last month that the evidence of the administration of the USIP was illegal.
The Fulbright program was created in 1946 after the legislation presented by J. William Fulbright, Democratic Senator of Arkansas. The Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961 offered legal laws for the program. He indicates that the selection of academics, teachers and others is the authority of a board of directors of 12 members appointed by the president.
The nearly 200 scholars who receive letters of rejection are part of a group of around 900 American researchers approved by the board of directors during the winter.
“The Bipartite Fulbright Council was mandated by the Congress to be a check for the executive and to ensure that students, researchers and educators are not subject to the blatant political favoritism for which this administration is known,” said Shaheen, the best democrat of the senatorial relations committee.
“Although I understand and respect the board of directors of Fulbright Bipartisan for having resigned rather than granting credibility to a politicized and illegal process,” she added, “I am painfully aware that today will change the quality of the Fulbright programming and the independent research that has made our country a leader in so many areas.”
Shaheen and the Board of Directors said that the State Department violated the status of the congress by rejecting or examining the candidates for the scholarships already approved by the Council, according to the problems of the problems.
The process of selecting American researchers generally begins with career diplomats in missions abroad and American educational establishments, and takes place for months until the board of directors gives an essentially pro formation during winter. In republican and democratic administrations, the Council has generally approved the candidates submitted by the State Department due to the long and rigorous selection process and to avoid the appearance of political interference.
The United States has 49 bilateral commissions established by treaties with other nations, many American allies, to help with the selection process and associate researchers with institutions. More than 35 countries contribute half or more to the financing of scholarships.
The composition of the council changes as members finish their three -year mandates. The current members are all appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. because those who started to serve it during the first Trump administration turned.
The nearly 200 American academics who receive letters of rejection from the State Department are approximately a fifth of the total of American researchers approved by the board of directors during the winter.
Mr. Beattie and his collaborators seem to reject them according to their declared research subjects, in particular climate change, environmental resilience, migration, sex, race and ethnicity and homeless people, said familiar people with the actions of the State Department. The subjects also include those of science, such as biology, agriculture and animal studies, according to the memo of the board of directors.
The Fulbright program includes around 8,000 researchers, students, teachers and researchers in different categories at any time.
The board of directors sent separate messages last month to Mr. Beattie and Christopher Landau, the assistant secretary of state, expressing his concern about the compression of the selection process for American academics, said the people.
Most American and foreign academics approved by the Board of Directors had received the first signals from civil servants and commissions of their acceptance so that they can organize leave of their universities and prepare to move abroad for about a year.
