Comment on FR Doc # 2026-13248

The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), an organization of over 3,500 scholars and practitioners, expresses strong opposition to the Department of Education's proposal to rescind all regulations governing the Title VI and Fulbright-Hays programs. ASEEES represents a field which has flourished as a result of federal support for the National Resource Centers, Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships, Language Resource Centers, and Fulbright-Hays awards, all administered under the regulations which the Department of Education proposes to rescind. ASEEES is deeply concerned about the consequences of rescission for area studies education and the instruction of less commonly taught languages. Removing the regulatory framework that has sustained the instruction and study of these regions and languages threatens decades of investment in expertise on a region of major geopolitical importance to the United States. Clear, consistent, and publicly available regulations are essential to protect the integrity of these programs. The Department of Education already enjoys the flexibility to set competitive priorities, define languages and areas of national need, and design selection criteria. Far from being “burdensome regulations that hinder effective government services,” the existing regulatory framework provides the necessary consistency that allows for higher education institutions to plan multi-year language and area studies programming and compete for the Department’s grants on a level playing field. Without a defined set of rules governing these programs, there is no stable basis on which institutions can make long-term investments in building and sustaining area studies and language training programs. Furthermore, the Department’s proposal to possibly “pursue non-grant options…, such as through contracts and subgrants” not subject to the peer review process would seriously degrade the integrity and quality of the Title VI and Fulbright-Hays programs. A peer review process with clear, standardized guidelines at all levels is critical for the effective governance of these programs. With regard to the Department’s stated interest in a more flexible, time-sensitive approach to program administration, the Title VI program was created to build a standing, national infrastructure of regional experts and language specialists capable of being responsive to immediate national need. Administering the program based on “the current geopolitical context” would replace this long-standing infrastructure, which has the capacity to respond quickly to geopolitical needs, with piecemeal arrangements that would require the development of particular expertise only after a need has been identified. Such an approach would be less effective in addressing immediate national needs and more costly for the US. In creating the Title VI program, the US government wisely built a broad national infrastructure akin to the US highway system; to tear the system down only to build small roads as needs arise will greatly reduce the capacity of the US to meet the geopolitical challenges of the future. ASEEES urges the Department of Education not to rescind the regulations governing Title VI and Fulbright-Hays programs.