In a remarkable move, the entire Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced its resignation on Wednesday, attributing the decision to interference from the Trump administration regarding the board’s scholarship awarding authority.
The 12-member panel issued a statement indicating that the State Department has denied Fulbright scholarships to “a substantial number of individuals who were selected for the 2025-2026 academic year.”
“In addition to this, the administration is currently subjecting around 1,200 foreign Fulbright participants to an unauthorized review process, with the potential for further rejections,” the board noted in its Substack statement.
The members emphasized that these actions “not only contradict the statute but are antithetical to the Fulbright mission and the values, including free speech and academic freedom, that Congress specified in the statute.”
Jed Katz, chair of the board and managing director at Javelin Venture Partners, pointed to the statement when approached by Finance Newso regarding the resignations of himself and fellow members.
All current board members, including Katz, were appointed by President Joe Biden, which adds a layer of political complexity to the resignations.
Among those who resigned are several former Biden administration officials, including Mala Adiga, deputy assistant to Biden, Jen O’Malley Dillon, former White House deputy chief of staff and chair of Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, and Vinay Reddy, a former speechwriter for Biden.
Finance Newso has reached out to the State Department for comments on this development.
Initial reports of the resignations came from The New York Times.
“Effective immediately, members of the Congressionally mandated Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board voted overwhelmingly to resign, refusing to endorse actions we consider unlawful, detrimental to U.S. national interests, and harmful to the mission laid out by Congress nearly 80 years ago,” the board stated.
The board reiterated that, since its inception, Congress has granted the Fulbright Board final approval authority over applicants following an extensive and methodical year-long selection process executed by non-partisan career staff within the State Department and embassies globally.
