CNN
—
Nearly all of the members of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board resigned on Wednesday, claiming the Trump administration is taking “unprecedented actions” they believe are “impermissible under the law.”
The board said the Trump administration denied a “substantial number” of Fulbright awards to people who had already been selected for the 2025-2026 academic year and included “an unauthorized review process” for an additional 1,200 foreign Fulbright recipients who could now be rejected from the program, according to a statement posted online.
“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 write.
The resignations are the latest development in the saga between President Donald Trump and educational institutions that has seen the administration target colleges and universities across the country, threaten funding over political ideology and revoke scores of student visas.
The Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board consists of 12 members appointed by the president and was established by Congress in 1961. The members select students, scholars, teachers and others to participate in the cultural exchange program.
Carmen Estrada-Schaye is the only remaining board member after the resignations, according to the Associated Press. She is also the only member currently listed on the State Department’s website.
The award’s “proud legacy has depended on one thing above all: the integrity of the program’s selection process based on merit, not ideology, and its insulation from political interference. That integrity is now undermined,” the former board members wrote in their statement.
A senior State Department official said the members “were partisan political appointees of the Biden Administration” and called the move a “political stunt attempting to undermine President Trump.”
“It’s ridiculous to believe that these members would continue to have final say over the application process, especially when it comes to determining academic suitability and alignment with President Trump’s Executive Orders,” the official said.
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the move will “change the quality of Fulbright programming.”
“While I understand and respect the bipartisan Fulbright Board for resigning en masse rather than grant credibility to a politicized and unlawful process, I’m painfully aware that yesterday’s move will change the quality of Fulbright programming and the independent research that has made our country a leader in so many fields,” Shaheen said in a statement.
The scholarship board said they have raised legal issues and objections with senior officials in the Trump administration on multiple occasions but claim the officials have failed to respond or attempt “good faith efforts to course correct.”
The Trump administration has recently made moves that could deter international students from studying in the US. Trump signed a proclamation earlier this month to suspend international visas for new students at Harvard University, and the State Department instructed US embassies and consulates around the world to pause new student visa appointments as it moves to expand “social media screening and vetting.”
A Fulbright scholar and Columbia University student left the country after she was told she faced immigration action as part of Trump’s crackdown on international students who participated in protests against the Israel-Hamas war.
The Trump administration’s statements and actions aimed at curtailing the number of international students in the US have already sent a chill of uncertainty through higher education institutions, and a drop-off in international students could reverberate through the US labor market and broader economy in years to come.
This story has been updated with additional details.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
