Cal Poly was named a top producer of Fulbright international exchange scholars this year, but the future of the program remains uncertain due to recent proposed funding cuts by the Trump administration.
The Fulbright program, primarily funded by the U.S. State Department, offers nearly 8,000 grants annually that allow recipients to teach, research or study abroad.
This is Cal Poly’s fifth time receiving the top producer distinction in the last decade, an honor awarded by the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, with three faculty members selected for programs in the 2024-25 block. While the university’s recognition is specifically for faculty members, there are other Fulbright programs that serve a range of applicants, including master’s level students.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced an overhaul of the U.S. State Department on April 22. The proposal includes restricting the Fulbright program to master’s students working on issues related to national security, according to leaked memos reported on by The New York Times.
The reported cuts have not been implemented yet; State Department grant recipients, including Fulbright finalists, were notified that their funding was temporarily paused for a 15-day period on Feb. 12, according to Fulbright. As of April 30, the freeze officially remains in effect, though payments started to be made at the end of March.
Physics professor Peter Schwartz was one of the Fulbright finalists affected by the funding pause.
Schwartz’s Fulbright program was planned for January 2026 at Mzuzu University in Malawi, he said. Schwartz is considering going before his program starts this fall to teach students intro-level physics, which he described as an important building block.
“I just think I’d make a huge difference,” Schwartz said, describing the importance of his program. “To be able to bring this to another country where I have a huge amount of students and be able to bring them resources that they don’t have access to would be, to me, really exciting.”
The uncertainty surrounding Schwartz’s program has affected his department, as Schwartz said it is still unclear if he will be teaching at Cal Poly next academic year.
This year, two Cal Poly faculty members returned from their Fulbright programs.
Biological sciences professor Jean Davidson completed her Fulbright program in Iceland, where she taught a bioinformatics class and conducted research on genomics at the University of Akureyri.
With Fulbright facing an uncertain future, Davidson said, “it is heartbreaking that this freeze has stalled out these opportunities at a time when I feel like we need to be more expansive and less insular.”
Engineering and computer science professor Paul Anderson completed his Fulbright program in Spain at the Universidad de Murcia, where he conducted AI research to help treat lower back pain.
After returning to San Luis Obispo, Anderson has continued working with his host university by connecting his Cal Poly students with researchers he met in Spain. Anderson described the impact of being exposed to a different culture.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to refresh and get a different perspective on a difficult research problem,” Anderson said. “If this program didn’t exist, our research wouldn’t be as good, and our opportunities for students wouldn’t be as good as they are now.”
Social sciences professor Sara Lopus said she is still planning to go to Brazil in late May for her Fulbright program. She will be analyzing how household composition impacts public school students.
Despite the pause for future Fulbright programs, Lopus said she is cautiously optimistic she will still complete her program. Lopus explained that the Brazilian Fulbright office said they believe they still have the money to fund her visit.
“It’s so helpful to immerse yourself in a culture and experience firsthand what it’s like,” Lopus said. “It can be really hard to know what’s going on if you’re not familiar with the culture and society that the data comes from.”