‘A travesty’: Penn faculty, alumni express concern over proposed Fulbright scholarship funding cut

Penn faculty and students expressed concerns about how Trump's proposal to narrow Fulbright Program funding could impact academic opportunities in interviews with The Daily Pennsylvanian.

An April 14 preliminary internal memo from the Trump administration — which Secretary of State Marco Rubio has denounced as "fake news" — outlined a more than 50% reduction of the State Department budget. Among the funding reductions was a restriction of Fulbright grants, limiting eligibility exclusively to students pursuing master's-level studies related to national security. 

In a statement to the DP, a Penn spokesperson wrote that the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships has not received "any official information about any future restructuring of the Fulbright program." 

At the time of publication, 60 of 113 Penn affiliates who applied for the 2025-26 Fulbright award had advanced to the semi-finalist stage and are currently awaiting a final decision, according to the University spokesperson. 

The spokesperson added that the Institute for International Education recently launched their 2026-27 application process for the award, and CURF continues to offer support to "all Penn students and alumni who are interested in applying for the Fulbright award."

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Heimbold Chair in International Law and professor of law Eric Feldman was previously a recipient of two Fulbright awards and a member of Penn’s Fulbright endorsement committee. He emphasized the program’s interdisciplinary nature and its importance in developing global ambassadors. 

“I’ve seen this program do extraordinary things for people interested in a wide range of issues,” Feldman said. “I deplore the possibility of this program being so thoroughly mutated that it no longer resembles the program it was set up to be.” 

Feldman also described his personal experiences with the Fulbright Program — both as a graduate student and a faculty member — saying that the award has had “particularly long reach into [his career] and really added to it.” He expressed worry that changes would deprive students of similar experiences, emphasizing that private philanthropy and university endowment funds were unlikely to be able to replicate the program. 

“It’s just a travesty to see the government wiping these kinds of programs away as if they haven't made a significant contribution to the United States and to the United States’s standing in the world,” Feldman said. “I hate seeing these stories, and I hate seeing them become realities.”

Feldman also noted that, despite the Trump administration’s attempts to shift the program to exclusively national security degrees, he has never reviewed an application focused on national security matters. 

2018 College graduate and 2018 Fulbright awardee David Thai described the award as a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” and characterized the proposed changes as “unfortunate.” In particular, Thai emphasized that the changes would narrow the program’s international exchange and limit student opportunities.

“[This draft order] poses a significant access barrier to many undergraduate students interested in cross-cultural opportunities,” Thai wrote. “I’d urge Penn and its students to advocate for the expansion of international programs like Fulbright.”