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There may still be a glimmer of hope for the 30 UC Berkeley graduate students denied consideration for prestigious Fulbright-Hayes fellowships when their applications were mailed after the competition’s deadline. 

Steven J. Uhlfelder, chairman of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, has scheduled a conference call of board members for Tuesday (Feb. 11) to see if anything can be done to assist the Berkeley students. 

“We’re just going to try to receive the facts and see if there’s anything we can do,” Uhlfelder told the Daily Planet Monday. 

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl, hailed Uhlfelder’s intervention, saying in a prepared statement that, “The purpose of the board is to make certain that all students have fair access to the competition...That, of course, has been our purpose in pursuing this all along.” 

Last month, the Department of Education disqualified UC Berkeley’s 30 applicants after their applications arrived postmarked one day after the Oct. 20 deadline. UC Berkeley officials contended the applications were scheduled to be mailed on the deadline day, but Federal Express never picked up the packages. 

Uhlfelder said the board had never reviewed decisions of the Department of Education during his three years of service, but in the case of the Berkeley students, “We need to make sure everyone feels they were treated fairly.” 

Fulbrights are among the most prestigious and generous scholarships offered to graduate students seeking to do research abroad, allowing recipients to propose their own budgets and include money for spouses. 

Last year, half of the UC Berkeley’s 30 applicants received grants ranging from $19,593 to $63,947, according to the university.