The Honorable Ted Stevens
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Attn: George Lowe
Dear Senator Stevens:
As a supporter of international exchanges, I am writing to respectfully urge you, in your role as a member of the Commerce, Justice, State subcommittee, to appropriate a minimum level of $126 million for the Fulbright Program for Students, Scholars, and Teachers, as part of the Department of State international educational and cultural exchange programs.
Although U.S. ambassadors rank the Fulbright Program among the most useful catalysts for long-term political change and mutual understanding, Fulbright exchanges for students, scholars and teachers remain significantly underfunded. According to Internationalization of U.S. Higher Education: Preliminary Status Report 2000, issued by the American Council on Education, 84 percent of the reduction in funding for Department of State-administered academic exchanges between 1994 and 1999 was absorbed by the Fulbright Program.
In addition to serving as a powerful and flexible long-term component of U.S. foreign relations, Fulbright exchanges between U.S. students, scholars and teachers and their counterparts in approximately 140 other countries result in significant benefits to U.S. communities. The Fulbright Program helps to strengthen relationships among individuals and institutions, promoting a more stable and peaceful world. Fulbright exchanges develop critical foreign language, cross-cultural and area studies skills needed among U.S. citizens to meet the challenges of a new century. Core funding from the U.S. government supports the global Fulbright Program and is essential to leveraging cost-sharing from diverse foreign governments and private sources.
In 1992-94 we conducted Russian-American Theatre program and as a result of my Fulbright year in Russia, dozens students from Alaska were able to visit and study theatre in Russia. All my colleagues at UAF Theatre Department also had an opportunity to work with the Russian theatre professionals. Our experience was described in “Americans in St. Petersburg” mazagine and the archives are open for the public on the websites – http://afronord.tripod.com/rat/intro.html and http://www.costumes.org
I appreciate your past support of the Fulbright Program for Students, Scholars and Teachers and ask you to demonstrate your continuing commitment by appropriating $126 million for these valuable exchanges in FY 2002.
Sincerely,
Prof. Anatoly G. Antohin
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Theatre UAF AK 99775
Senior Fulbright Scholar, Russia 1993-94
Liberty is always unfinished business. --anonymous
