Students May Get New Shot at Grants

Thirty UC Berkeley graduate students who were recently disqualified from the prestigious Fulbright scholarship program after the university missed the application deadline may get a chance to compete for special Fulbright awards created on their behalf.

The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, which oversees the highly competitive federal program for study abroad, agreed Tuesday to consider establishing additional Fulbright grants for the students this year.

Winners would enjoy the prestige of being Fulbright scholars, but UC Berkeley would be required to find the funding for the scholarships -- perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The idea came up during a telephone conference between eight Fulbright board members, officials of the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Education -- the agencies overseeing Fulbright grants -- and UC Berkeley representatives.

The full 12-member Fulbright board, which is appointed by the president, is set to discuss the proposal at its next meeting Feb. 18 in Washington.

The Berkeley graduate students had applied for Fulbright grants to support doctoral dissertation research abroad.

UC Berkeley had intended to send the package of applications to the Department of Education, which administers the doctoral research program, on Oct. 20, the day they were required to be postmarked. But a Federal Express courier failed to pick the package up from the campus until the next day.

The Department of Education ruled that UC Berkeley had missed the deadline, infuriating the campus administration.

UC Berkeley pushed for the department to accept its applications; Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl made a special trip to Washington to meet with Education Department officials.

The efforts proved fruitless. Education Department officials held firm.

Susan Aspey, an Education Department spokeswoman, said the board did “not have the authority to reverse the department’s decision,” but added, “It is appropriate for Berkeley to be responsible for addressing this situation.”

UC Berkeley officials had called the Department of Education a “senseless bureaucracy” in national media reports.

Aspey said, “It’s a shame it had to come to this. The university waged a full assault with a PR campaign attempting to embarrass the department for following the rules.”

The proposal would create a separate process for the Berkeley applicants, independent of the Education Department. Fulbright Board Chairman Steven J. Uhlfelder said he hoped the one-time fellowships would be administered by the State Department.

The State Department would have to come up with a selection process designed to approximate the original competition, though the Berkeley students would be the only applicants in the pool.

In a written statement Tuesday, Berdahl praised the board’s proposal. “They worked out a solution that, while not ideal, is more than satisfactory and provides a workable outcome to help the students,” he said.

Jason Seawright, a UC Berkeley political science doctoral student who applied for the program, said he would welcome another opportunity to obtain a grant.

“But it sounds like it’s not a good deal financially for the university, especially now with this budget situation,” he said.

Berdahl said funds would come from the campus and other sources, though the precise amount needed is unknown. Last year, 15 Berkeley doctoral students received the awards, for total grants of nearly $400,000.

Berdahl did name one potential funder: “We are working with Federal Express and hope that it will see it has an obligation to assist us financially,” he said.