The global health emergency continues to evolve, with governments around the world closing borders, recommending strict policies of social distancing and sheltering in place, and taking dramatic steps to limit the spread of the virus.
Covid-19 has moved quickly and without precedent, presenting both an existential threat from a public health perspective and a significant challenge to both the global economy and individuals around the world.
My highest priority at this time continues to be the safety and security of our grantees, our alumni, and my staff.
A week ago, we were looking at a voluntary early return scenario, with choice residing with the grantees. Today, we are at the tail end of a very significant push to bring everyone home.
The US Fulbright Program has been suspended indefinitely. The foreign student and scholar programs are operating at a very reduced level.
We have now had the opportunity to reach out to every one of our students and scholars who were on exchange this semester.
One week ago, the number of individuals who opted to take up our voluntary early return offer (the entire grant paid out early, guaranteed alumni status, and extra assistance where needed) was roughly 50%. Today it is more than 80%.
Most universities in Canada and the United States have moved to an online delivery model for students and have made every effort to restrict in-person activities that are not essential.
As a practical matter, all new travel is canceled, all programming that involves direct contact is canceled or postponed, and all upcoming programs are canceled or postponed. Please see our Program Updates section for details.
I have effectively closed the office, and all staff are teleworking.
The challenge now is to find interesting, useful, and effective strategies to provide programming for both current grantees and alumni and to do so with a clear focus on supporting the exceptional commitment of our university partners, and providing critical networking opportunities for our grantees and our alumni. We are looking at a variety of online initiatives, including symposia, lectures on critical issues facing our community and the broader world, community leadership projects, and, of course, some old fashioned academic discussions and debates. We are also looking at creating a challenge for our students and scholars to find a way to move forward at this particularly challenging moment.
I will be providing more details on these new initiatives in the days and weeks to come. In the meanwhile, we will be canvassing grantees, alumni, our advisory board, and our board of directors for ideas and direction.
We are confident that we will weather this storm and that together we can continue to support research, scholarship, networking and fellowship, even if that has to be digitally in the short-term.
In that respect, the future may be nearer than we thought.
Thank you all for your commitment and your resilience during this difficult time.
Stay safe,
Michael