Obama wants to cut Fulbright program

Alumni mobilize worldwide to avert trimming exchanges created by Arkansan

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has proposed cutting 13 percent of funding from an international education exchange program named for a former U.S. senator from Arkansas, and alumni around the world are raising objections.

If approved by Congress, much of the $30.5 million taken from the J. William Fulbright Educational Exchange Program would instead go toward shorter-term exchange programs, according to the U.S. State Department.

Fulbright sponsored legislation creating the Fulbright program at the end of World War II, and it was funded initially by the sale of surplus war property.

He said on the Senate floor on the day he proposed the program that exchanging information and culture between countries would “create a better understanding of our mutual problems, and promote friendly relations,” according to the Sept. 27, 1945, Congressional Record.

Fulbright said that by creating such a student and scholar exchange “a great contribution will have been made to the future peace of the world.”

Fulbright grew up in Fayetteville and was president of the University of Arkansas for two years before being elected to the U.S. House in 1942. Elected to the Senate in 1944, Fulbright became the longest-serving chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a position he held from 1959-74. In 1974, Fulbright lost his Senate seat to then-Gov. Dale Bumpers. Fulbright died in 1995 at age 89.

U.S. taxpayers pay for much of the Fulbright program, which sends Americans overseas and brings foreign students and scholars to this country. Governments of participating countries and some private groups also provide funding. The duration of the exchanges varies but can be for one year or longer.

In the years since Fulbright first proposed the exchange idea, the federal government has created several other exchange programs as a way to build international good will.

Obama has repeatedly proposed broader exchanges to include more people from minority groups and countries that haven’t been the focus of past exchanges.

The president’s proposed 2015 budget shifts money to create short-term programs for people in countries that are experiencing conflicts or crises, dramatic leadership transitions, or significant societal changes.

State Department spokesman Susan Pittman said that may include more exchanges that last for a few weeks or months, rather than up to a year.

“It’s just a matter of getting more people in [and out] in order to be able to have the experiences of an exchange program,” Pittman said.

The president’s budget request also creates three new programs focused on Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, places that are seen as hotbeds of developing terrorism. The programs are called the Young African Leaders Initiative, the Young South-East Asian Leaders Initiative and Fulbright University-Vietnam.

“We’re trying to increase the numbers of people that would be coming from those countries. Right now they are one of our most underserved populations,” Pittman said.

The Fulbright program would receive $204 million in the proposed budget and would continue to be the largest exchange program offered in the U.S.

“Fulbright continues to be our flagship program,” Pittman said.

On April 9, the U.S. House voted down the president’s budget, but Fulbright alumni said the vote is just the opening salvo in budget negotiations and they expect the State Department to keep pushing for the change.

The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs awards approximately 8,000 Fulbright grants each year, according to the department website.About 1,600 U.S. students and about 1,200 U.S. college and university faculty members receive grants to visit other countries, and about 4,900 foreign students and scholars receive grants to visit the United States to teach or learn.

Grants are awarded in more than a dozen categories, including year-long guest lecturer positions, short-term curriculum study trips for school administrators and a schoolteacher exchange.

One of the newest awards is the J. William Fulbright-Hillary Rodham Clinton (Fulbright-Clinton) Fellowship, which arranges for Americans to serve as “special assistants” to officials in foreign countries. Recipients also do independent research and study during their 10-month assignments.

About 310,000 people have participated in the Fulbright program since 1946, according to the department.

Since Obama’s proposed budget was announced, alumni have started petition drives and are urging supporters to call members of Congress to halt the changes.

Austrian Yussi Pick helped create saveFulbright.org, which has collected more than 25,000 signatures from people urging Congress to reverse the program cuts.

With his Fulbright grant, Pick taught at the College of Wooster in Ohio in 2007 and 2008. He now leads a consulting firm in Europe and the United States, runs a blog explaining American elections and political policy decisions to Austrians, and has written a book on how the Internet has changed political communication.

The Fulbright fellowship was pivotal, Pick said, adding, “It set the foundation for what I do today and who I am today.”

Pick said alumni from around the world have come forward to explain how the program shaped their lives and changed their perspective on the United States.

“These cuts would really hurt the program,” Pick said. “It came totally out of the blue. In times like these, it’s just the wrong thing to cut public-diplomacy programs.”

The Fulbright Association, a nonprofit network of alumni, also is raising the alarm and asking members to contact their congressmen.

John Vogel, president of the association’s board, said Fulbright “would be shocked and appalled” to learn that the government is reducing the program’s funding.

“It’s the premier international education program that our country offers,” Vogel said. “It would be a travesty for the program if it was diminished.”

Several alumni from Arkansas said that spending a length of time in another country changed their perspective not only on the other culture, but on their own government.

Chase Stoudenmire, a University of Arkansas graduate student studying history, was a Fulbright fellow in Georgia in 2010 and 2011. He said his experience explaining American government and culture abroad drew him into a federal-service career.

“You are asked to explain things you never thought to question. You gain an invaluable perspective on the world, seeing the U.S. and U.S. policy in action not only from a U.S. viewpoint but through the very different interpretive lenses of the other 95 percent of humanity,” he said.

University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service associate communication professor Christina Standerfer said answering questions about democracy in Albania in 2012 and 2013 widened her perspective.

“I have a deeper understanding of what [democracy] means, a deeper appreciation, and I share that with my students,” she said.

Christopher R. Kelley, an associate professor at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, went to Ukraine on a Fulbright grant in 2005 and Moldova in 2011. He said he sees long exchanges as being more valuable than the shorter ones proposed bythe State Department.

“It takes time to learn how to be an ambassador in another country,” he said. “You can’t just parachute in, look around and parachute out.”

American Studies associate professor Allison Wallace at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway taught English in Japan as a Fulbright scholar in 2002. She advises UCA students on applying for Fulbright scholarships.

“Arkansans, in particular, should really care about this. It would just be a dirty shame to lose some of that really precious funding, none of which goes to waste,” she said.

U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said he doesn’t expect Congress to cut spending in the Fulbright program.

Boozman said Obama may have moved the funding around knowing that the Fulbright program is too popular to cut. He said the president may hope Congress keeps Fulbright program spending at its current level without undoing his proposed increases to other exchange programs.

“The consensus is that this program is very well-respected,” Boozman said. “At the end of the day, the program will probably get level funding and continue on as it is now, which is a victory in these very tough budget times.”

In a statement provided by his staff, U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., seemed less optimistic, saying Congress has to prioritize funding for programs that help students attend college.

“The Fulbright scholar program is a very prestigious program, and we’re honored to have it named after an Arkansan. However, as appropriators, Sen. Boozman, Congressman [Steve] Womack, and I understand that in today’s tough budget climate many of our programs may face cuts,” he said.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/21/2014

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