A University of Maine professor who applied for the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program said he was denied for what he calls the “politicizing” of the scholarship process.
Robert Glover said his 45-page application, which would have sent him to teach in Portugal, was accepted by that country’s Fulbright commission in April and green lit through the American commission but was denied funding in May.
Glover believes his funding was denied because of “keywords” in his application that are being picked out by President Trump’s administration. His application focused on researching how Portugal’s approach to decriminalizing drugs and treating drug-related crimes with health interventions instead of criminal charges has been more effective than other strategies.
“This is part of a pattern from this administration in which they’re trying to restrict and determine what happens at American research universities and anything that is viewed as, anything that’s viewed as like progressive,” Glover said. “[The administration is] just doing this blanket termination, or at the very least disruption of those sorts of things.”
Glover shared his experience after all but one member of the Fulbright Board resigned citing President Donald Trump’s administration was interfering in the selection process, according to their resignation letter posted on Substack. If this trend continues, research universities like the University of Maine could be forced to change how it looks at conducting research, Glover said.
“[The Fulbright] is a really critical part of a research endeavor and the intellectual exchange that drives a top research university. If that’s in jeopardy, then so is the mission of the university,” Glover said.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. The University of Maine System did not respond for comment in time for publication.
The Fulbright Board and program were created as part of the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961 as a way to supervise America’s international education and cultural exchange programs. The program awards approximately 8,000 merit-based grants to send and receive students and professors from over 150 countries to research, study and teach.
University of Maine system students have been awarded 52 Fulbrights between 1951 and 2024 while faculty have received 81.
In the board’s resignation, the former board members wrote that said the integrity of the board has been “undermined” by Trump’s administration. The letter said that more than 1,200 foreign Fulbright recipients are being forced through an “unauthorized review process” that leads them to be denied without the board’s input.
Applications in the fields of biology, engineering, architecture, agriculture, crop sciences, animal sciences, biochemistry, medical sciences, music and history were denied for the 2025-26 academic year, according to the board.
Denying applicants will stop the cultural exchange and tell researchers that America isn’t making them a top priority, Glover said. Not only will the top researchers stop coming into the country, but universities will stop being seen as the best in the world.
“I think it just signals that this is not a place in which the talent and capacity of you as a researcher is our foremost priority,” Glover said.
