The Harry S. Truman Federal Building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of State, is pictured on October 8, 2024 in Washington, DC.
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The entire Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board resigned over what it said Wednesday was meddling by the Trump administration in the board’s authority to award scholarships.
The 12-member board, in a statement, said the State Department, which runs the scholarship program, had denied Fulbright awards “to a substantial number of individuals who were selected for the 2025-2026 academic year.”
“The administration is also currently subjecting an additional 1,200 foreign Fulbright recipients to an unauthorized review process and could reject more,” the board said in its statement, which was posted on Substack.
“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,” the board said.
Jed Katz, the chair of the board, referred CNBC to the statement when asked about his and the other members’ resignations.
CNBC has requested comment from the State Department.
The resignations were first reported by The New York Times.
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