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You are a highly skilled journalist, writing for a reputable news publication.You will rewrite the provided HTML content into a well-structured news article, adhering too journalistic standards of accuracy, clarity, and objectivity.
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Rewrite, do not summarize: The article should be a rewritten version of the provided content, not a summary. All information should be included, but rephrased in a clear and concise manner.
Begin!
Fulbright Board Members Resign, Alleging Political Interference by Trump Governance
WASHINGTON – All but one member of the 12-person board that oversees the prestigious Fulbright Program have resigned, citing political interference by the Trump administration.
Congress created the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board through the 1961 Fulbright-Hays Act to supervise the U.S. government’s flagship program of international educational and cultural exchange. The program awards some 8,000 merit-based grants each year, enabling Fulbright scholars across fields to study, teach, and conduct research in some 160 countries.
Board members, whom the sitting president appoints to three-year terms, meet quarterly to establish the policies and procedures governing the non-partisan Fulbright Program. They are also responsible for selecting the scholarship participants, as the former board members wrote in a resignation letter published to Substack on Wednesday.
“At the program’s inception,Congress clearly specified that the Fulbright Board has final approval authority of applicants,which occurs after an exhaustive and deliberate,year-long process led by non-partisan career staff at the State Department and Embassies around the world,” reads the letter,from an account called “formerly the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.”
But former board members say the Trump administration has interfered in that process, undermining its integrity and usurping the board’s authority.
what do former board members allege?
The resignation letter says the administration denied Fulbright awards to a “substantial number” of individuals it had selected for the 2025-2026 academic year, while also subjecting another 1,200 foreign Fulbright recipients to “an unauthorized review process and could reject more.”
Awards where overridden in subject areas spanning architecture, biology, engineering, agriculture, animal sciences, medical sciences, music and history, it says, accusing the administration of “injecting politics and ideological mandates into the Fulbright program.”
“We believe these actions not only contradict the statute but are antithetical to the Fulbright mission and the values, including free speech and academic freedom, that Congress specified in the statute,” they saeid.
The letter says the board raised the legal issues and its strong objections with senior administration officials multiple times, including in writing, but that the officials “have refused to acknowledge or respond.”
In a statement shared with NPR, the State Department – which sponsors the program – described the board members as “partisan political appointees” of former President Joe Biden and said their claim that the 1961 act “affords exclusive and final say” over Fulbright applications to the board is false.
