Amid increasing threats to the U.S. State Department's Fulbright Program budget, seven recent Dartmouth graduates are currently pursuing academic research and cross-cultural exchanges as Fulbright scholars. While Congress has yet to approve the State Department's 2012 fiscal year budget, the Fulbright Program's budget was cut by $16.4 million in fiscal year 2011, dropping the program's budget to $237.4 million, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. This decrease led to reductions in the program's foreign-language awards and the number of fellowships awarded for international students, according to The Chronicle. Budget reductions also forced the U.S. Department of Education to cancel the Fulbright-Hays Program, which had previously sponsored research and training efforts focused on non-Western foreign languages and area studies for fiscal year 2011, according to the Fulbright Program website.
Fulbright scholar Sarah Frostenson '11, who was a modified history major and environmental studies minor, applied for a 10-month Fulbright grant in September 2010, she said. After Frostenson received her scholarship, however, she learned that the Fulbright Program had reduced her grant funding to nine months, she said.
"The possibility for a [grant] extension will be even slimmer than in years' past," Frostenson said in an email to The Dartmouth.
Now using her grant to work on agricultural research in South Africa, Frostenson said Fulbright scholars are well aware of the budget restrictions that the program faces.
Sarah Carson '09, a Fulbright scholar who is on an English teaching assistantship in India, said she was notified on Oct. 28 of the potential budget cuts to the Fulbright Program.
"I actually just received an email from the Fulbright headquarters requesting that we contact our Representatives to protest the possible cuts," Carson said in an email to The Dartmouth.
While Carson has not been personally affected by cuts to the Fulbright Program, she said she has witnessed financial strain at Fulbright facilities in India since her exchange began in July.
"The staff who runs the Fulbright Programs in Delhi and Calcutta are already over-burdened with the number of people and programs they must oversee," she said. "I imagine that further austerity measures will be terribly difficult for them to adapt to."
Fulbright scholar Claire Scott '11, a German studies major and history and English double minor, said she is currently pursuing research in women's studies in Munich, Germany, with her grant.
Although her scholarship will remain unchanged despite budget concerns, any cuts made to the Fulbright Program "would definitely have a negative effect on the program," Scott said.
"As it is, students living in more expensive cities like Munich struggle to find housing that they can afford on a Fulbright stipend," Scott said in an email to The Dartmouth. "I know some people who still haven't found a place to stay yet and they have been over here for almost two months."
Emily Goodell '11, a Russian language and literature major at the College who received a Fulbright grant to teach English in Cheboksary, Russia, said the state of the Fulbright budget remains "all very unsure at this point."
"Part of the [issue] is that Fulbright gets funding from many different sources," Goodell said in an email to The Dartmouth. "A lot of countries that receive Fulbright fellows also contribute to the cost."
While Goodell said she was aware of the possibility of budget cuts, she said she does not believe her project will be affected since she already received her stipend.
Current Dartmouth Fulbright scholars interviewed by The Dartmouth said they have already benefited academically while abroad on the scholarship.
Frostenson, who began her exchange in September, has been working in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, examining the water efficiency of an irrigation method known as Radial Root Irrigation. In addition to studying the effects of RRI, Frostenson will study the irrigation method's social practicality in two individual villages, she said. Frostenson also plans to train community members from both villages to work alongside her on the project.
"Aside from daily battling the rockiest roads imaginable while driving a manual stick shift, it's been great so far," Frostenson said in an email to The Dartmouth. "My project is doing something the community sees sense in, they actually want it. So, I'm not just another crazy, starry-eyed foreigner coming in with some half-baked idea."
Scott's project focuses on understanding women who spent time in displaced persons camps after World War II, she said.
"I am taking some history courses at the [local] university to help provide context for my work [and] I am setting up appointments at various archives in Munich," Scott said. "Now that I have all of the bureaucratic paperwork out of the way, I am excited about really forging ahead with my project."
While Assistant Dean for scholarship advising Kristin O'Rourke said she did not know enough details of the budget cuts to the Fulbright Program to comment on them, she said she hopes students will continue to apply for the opportunity.
"It's a great program and we have a strong rate of success," O'Rourke said. "Between 25 to 40 percent of applicants every year for the last six years that I know of have been awarded grants."
The cuts to the program's funding are unlikely to affect the number of applications that the College receives for the program in the future, O'Rourke said.
"The Fulbright is a fairly unique scholarship in that students can pretty much go anywhere in the world for research, graduate study or teaching English," she said. "So I don't know of another scholarship that could take its place."
At the College, the scholarship advising office oversees approximately 100 applications to external scholarship annually, according to O'Rourke. These include applications for the Fulbright, Rhodes and Marshall scholarships, among others, she said.
The Fulbright application process first requires students to submit their completed applications to the College. The Committee on Graduate Fellowships, composed of College faculty members, interviews all applicants as part of the "campus review" portion of the Fulbright application, O'Rourke said. The scholarship advising office then submits all applications to the Fulbright Program directly, according to O'Rourke.
Advisors work with students to develop and edit their study proposals, personal statements and other aspects of scholarship applications, O'Rourke said.
About 30 to 40 College seniors and recent graduates apply for the Fulbright Program each year, O'Rourke said.
The Fulbright Program, established by Congress in 1946, is the largest international exchange program for American scholars to participate in fieldwork and teaching abroad. The program, administered and funded by the State Department, provides grants to approximately 6,000 students, teachers and professionals from the United States each year.
Liana Chase '11, a Fulbright scholar currently pursuing psychological anthropology research in Nepal, and Michael Chen '11, a Fulbright scholar studying Egyptology in Germany, did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
Goodell is a former member of The Dartmouth Senior Staff. Frostenson is a former member of The Dartmouth Staff.
