Although I was awarded a 2020-2021 award to Ukraine with the @FulbrightPrgrm, we received word this morning that all grants are suspended until at least Jan 2021. The email also indicated that grants will likely be cut short and we will not have the opportunity to stay in our

countries for the originally promised time of 9 months. This means that I will likely get 5 months of time in country if I’m even allowed to go in January. I hope @FulbrightPrgrm does the right thing and continues to fund us for the entirety of our grant instead of giving us

just a few months to get a years worth of work accomplished. Beyond our own research agendas, this has major impacts for everything else. Let me explain: one of the missions of Fulbright is to immerse one’s self in the culture and language of host countries. Only being in

country for a short period of time forces us to speed into work without properly orienting ourselves with new cities, customs, work flows, and agendas. It will also deny us the time to get acquainted with our academic colleagues and build partnerships. For those of us with

partners, this means denying them the opportunity to find proper employment (my partner, a teacher, was going to teach in Ukraine for the year). This means many people could be without their significant others when they otherwise could have been. On more immediate matters,

leaving in the middle of the year puts grantees in precarious financial and housing situations. Many of us have to sign leases for a year, and if we break them, we pay outrageous penalties that many cannot afford. We then have to find housing mid-year in our host countries. This

also means that since we can’t travel until Jan 2021 at the earliest, many of us will have to renew jobs/contracts that cannot simply be broken mid year. 2019-2020 Fulbrighters were already stripped of their grants and forced to return home. The folks at @FulbrightCrisis have

been providing updates on this advocating that grant recipients should be able to return to their countries and be funded once the pandemic has settled down. Now, the promise of 9 month grants is quickly being taken away from the 2020-2021 cohort with no assurance that we will

get the chance to compete them at a later date. Both 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 Fulbright cohorts deserve their grants in full. The pandemic certainly is not Fulbright’s fault and they shouldn’t be blamed for it, but they do have the ability to make this right and to allow all of us

the chance to research and teach in our respective countries. Please help spread the word to all Fulbrighters affected by this so we can come together in solidarity. Fulbright recruits the sharpest minds in the world. It would be great if they wanted to partner with those who

were impacted by this and come up with a plan that continues to support both the researchers/ETAs and the Fulbright program.