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After the U.S. Department of State initiated a funding freeze, the future of WKU study abroad appeared to hang in the balance.
On Feb. 12, the Department of State enacted a 15-day temporary funding freeze on grant disbursements through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), according to a statement from The Forum on Education Abroad. The freeze was set to expire Feb. 27, yet no federal action had taken place to resume ECA funding as of March 3, according to a press release from the Association of International Educators.
Melinda Grimsley, assistant director for the WKU Office of Scholar Development (OSD), said the freeze had potential effects on the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship and the Fulbright Program. 
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She said it initially resulted in 17 of the 19 WKU Gilman Scholars from the October 2024 application cycle not receiving their scholarships. 
When the scholarships were first frozen, she hadn’t received any notification from the State Department, the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs or the Institute of International Education. She said one of her biggest struggles with the situation is the lack of communication. 
“I like clear communication,” Grimsley said. “I like press releases. I like when people say program changes are coming.”
Grimsley’s staff in OSD, as well as the WKU Global staff, resorted to crowdsourcing and even questioning students.
“We have a really strong professional network where we’re in the habit of helping each other out, so keeping each other informed,” Grimsley said. “But on the other hand, there’s very little information to come by. So, trying to respond and do the right thing for students is really tough when we have no idea what’s coming.”
Natalie Spiva, a WKU senior who earned a Gilman scholarship to study in Spain this summer, said she panicked after hearing the news, considering her financial circumstances. 
“I suddenly don’t have a couple thousand dollars,” Spiva said. “That’s a pretty gaping hole that I need to fill, especially since mine is the summer; it needed to be sooner rather than later.”
According to the Gilman Scholarship website, the program is specifically for “undergraduate students of limited financial means.” Grimsley said the program is available to all students who receive a Pell Grant, like Spiva.
Spiva said she never would have considered studying abroad without the Gilman Program, and she appreciated OSD’s commitment to students and its constant communication despite the unfortunate situation. She plans to use the experience to gather a cultural understanding of language overseas. 
“I’m not a native speaker, so studying abroad for a while is about as close as I can get to getting the real experience of those people that I want to work with and study, and so (it) can be very valuable,” Spiva said.
She kept those hopes on the horizon amid the uncertainty. Spiva said she appreciated OSD’s commitment to students and its constant communication despite the unfortunate situation.
But Spiva’s doubts were resolved with the help of John Sunnygard, associate provost for WKU Global Learning & International Affairs.
“There’s the dream, there’s all the commitments, there’s a lot that all of a sudden just gets blown up,” Sunnygard said. “And we were not going to allow that to happen to our students.”
After the freeze, Sunnygard said he contacted WKU Provost Bud Fischer to establish a plan for covering the Gilman Scholarships.
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“We did an estimate of what it would cost to the provost and reached out to him, and he said, ‘We’re committed, and we’ll find the money if we need it,’” Sunnygard said.
Sunnygard highlighted the importance of the “safety net” Fischer offered and his commitment to study abroad programs.
“I’ve worked at several different institutions, and he is the most committed provost that I’ve worked with to sending students abroad,” Sunnygard said.
The Herald reached out to Fischer for a statement about the logistics of covering the Gilman Scholarships on April 14 but did not receive a response before publication.
Sunnygard specifically emphasized the impact that study abroad programs have on students.
“Those scholarships are amazing; they’re absolutely amazing,” Sunnygard said. “I wish that they had been available when I was an undergraduate. And they truly change students’ lives.”
Despite the situation being remedied at WKU, concerns remain nationwide.
According to a March 13 press release, the Institute of International Education furloughed the majority of its staff who work on ECA-funded programs, including Fulbright and Gilman, due to funding shortages. 
Grimsley said the Institute is carrying out essential responsibilities only, not including outreach, and moving at a “snail’s pace.” 
“The organization that administers many of these programs (the Institute of International Education) has furloughed most of their staff, so operations are significantly slowed,” Grimsley said in an email to all WKU faculty on April 3. “They’re focused on essential functions and have gotten the 2026-27 application open, albeit without fanfare and outreach.”
Grimsley also said the scholarships have been thawing since mid-March. 
“State Department scholarships were ‘frozen’ for a time, but all indications point to a ‘thaw’ in funding now,” Grimsley said in the email. “All of our WKU folks affected are okay.”
Grimsley and Sunnygard encourage students to apply for Fulbright and Gilman in the upcoming award year, even amid the uncertainty of the future of these programs.
“They’re not being funded to the degree that they should, but they haven’t been cut, and that’s a very big and important distinction,” Grimsley said, “And that gives me hope that proper staffing can be backfilled with enough pressure from people who don’t want to see these programs go away.”

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