Features

Thirty UC Berkeley graduate students are back in the running for a Fulbright-Hayes fellowship thanks to the intervention of the board that oversees the foreign study program. 

Last month the Department of Education, which oversees the Fulbright-Hayes program, denied consideration to the 30 UC students after a missed Federal Express pickup caused applications to be sent one day after the deadline. 

Announcing the compromise Tuesday, J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board President Steven Uhlfelder said that students’ applications would be reviewed separately by the State Department, since the Department of Education had already disqualified them. 

“We’re not disagreeing with the Department of Education,” Uhlfelder said. “We just wanted to make sure the students had a fair chance.” 

The deal allows deserving Berkeley students to cite the award among their accomplishments, while placing the burden of funding on UC. 

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl praised Tuesday’s compromise as a “workable outcome to help the students,” adding the university hoped to reach a deal with Federal Express to help pay for the fellowships that last year ranged from $19,593 to $63,947. 

Susan Aspey, spokesperson for the Department of Education, said her agency would not reconsider its decision and continued to blame Berkeley for the snafu. “We continue to feel very sorry for the students whose applications cannot be considered for the Fulbright-Hayes Doctoral Program because of Berkeley's negligence,” she said.