FAYETTEVILLE -- A collaboration between the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville to record the stories of participants in the foreign-exchange program will help the state by establishing closer ties to an educational program recognized as producing world leaders, officials said at a ceremony Wednesday.
U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright, who would represent Arkansas for 30 years, introduced legislation in 1945 that created the international educational exchange program named after him.
The UA J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences will work with the Fulbright board, the Fulbright Association and other schools to compile a list of living Fulbright program participants and also gather oral and visual histories from those who traveled to study as "Fulbrighters," according to a UA announcement.
Jeff Bleich, chairman of the 12-person Fulbright board, spoke Wednesday about how a letter of intent reaffirms the ties between UA, where Fulbright once was university president, and the foreign-exchange program.
"By combining forces, the Fulbright center and the Fulbright foreign scholarship board can knit together those 380,000 distinguished alums more closely. We can preserve their stories for posterity, and we can promote Fulbright's vision even more broadly though new technology that we will be sharing together," said Bleich.
The Fulbright board is made up of presidential appointees and includes Mark Pryor, a former U.S. senator from Arkansas. The board has met this week in Fayetteville and, as part of a new letter of intent signed at the ceremony Wednesday, has also pledged to try to have a meeting at UA at least once every three years, according to UA.
The agreement also establishes that J. William Fulbright papers and memorabilia held at UA will be recommended for viewing by new members of the Fulbright board, the university has said in an announcement.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson and U.S. Rep. French Hill delivered recorded video messages for the event Wednesday held at UA's Jim & Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center, with the elected officials praising the program and Arkansas' connection to it.
Mike Preston, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said at the ceremony that the Fulbright program brings with it economic potential.
"It gives us a platform from which to build upon and leverage a globally-recognized name and program that will allow the governor and I to continue to sell Arkansas as a business destination, as a destination for education and as a destination for life," Preston said.
Bleich and Mark Waldrip, chairman of the University of Arkansas board of trustees, signed a letter of intent at the ceremony while some 40 participants in the Fulbright program stood behind them. Waldrip said the agreement "has been a priority for our board, and we are so pleased to see this collaboration and the way that it continues to evolve."
The ceremony included praise for Fulbright and the foreign exchange program, which has included participants from more than 180 countries, according to the U.S. State Department. The Fulbright Program relies on a congressional appropriation for funding and awards about 8,000 grants annually.
Todd Shields, dean of UA's J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, spoke about the new partnership and the importance of the ideals behind the exchange program.
"Working together we are stronger, and we are better positioned to achieve Sen. Fulbright's bold vision of peace through education," Shields said.
UA Chancellor Joe Steinmetz delivered a video message for the ceremony Wednesday and spoke Tuesday at an event about the reissue by the University of Arkansas Press of a Fulbright book on foreign policy. The event was held at the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History.
Shields said Wednesday that David Pryor, a former longtime U.S. senator and father of Mark Pryor, told him early in his time at UA that it would be good for the university to do more with the Fulbright scholarship program. Shields thanked the elder Pryor, a UA board trustee, and others "who have been working for years" to develop the collaboration.
Steinmetz told the Democrat-Gazette on Tuesday about the lasting influence of the Fulbright educational exchange program.
"I really think that's Fulbright's legacy to the country," Steinmetz said. "What's great for us is he has that local history with us, because of course he was raised here in Fayetteville, was a university president, represented the state for many years as a senator. But what's lived on beyond all of those connections is this great program that links the U.S. in general with the world around us."
Metro on 11/15/2018