Science Fry Day

A $10 million annual fellowship program that provides money to graduate students in environmental science, policy, and engineering has been eliminated by the Bush administration, officials announced late last week. The fellowships, which were part of the U.S. EPA's Science to Achieve Results program, were the only federal monies specifically earmarked to fund environmental studies students. Prior to being axed, the program was supporting 311 students, each of whom received between $30,000 and $34,000 for one to three years, and some 1,350 people had already applied for the 2003 fellowships. The program appears to have gotten lost in the shuffle of the administration's attempts to transfer environmental education programming from the EPA to the National Science Foundation. Critics of the cut say President Bush should support the program, because he has consistently highlighted the importance of solid science in environmental decision-making.