FYI
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 14:23:34 -0500
From: NCSE List Manager <henderson@ncseonline.org>
To: "cnie@csf.colorado.edu" <cnie@csf.colorado.edu>
Subject: NCSE Initiates Campaign to Restore EPA STAR Fellowships
NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR SCIENCE AND THE ENVIRONMENT ACTION ALERT
NCSE Initiates Campaign to Restore EPA STAR Fellowships
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED to preserve the only federal program of
environmental graduate fellowships. The President's proposed budget for
FY 2003 eliminates funding for the EPA's Science To Achieve Results
(STAR) Fellowship program. Unless Congress continues funding for this
program, one of the best ways to support top students in the
environmental sciences will disappear. Please write to the
Congressional appropriations committees and to your Senators and
representatives.
>From 1995 through 2001 the EPA funded over 800 STAR Fellows at 168
colleges and universities. The average fellowship award was $30,000 and
lasted nearly three years. STAR Fellowships are highly desired and
extremely competitive, with only 10% of applicants receiving funding.
The annual appropriation for the STAR Fellowships program was about $9
million.
Upon the establishment of STAR, the EPA stated: “The purpose of the
fellowship program is to encourage promising students to obtain advanced
degrees and pursue careers in environmentally related fields. This goal
is consistent with the mission of EPA, which is to provide leadership in
the nation's environmental science, research, education, assessment,
restoration, and preservation efforts. This program will benefit both
the public and private sectors which will need a steady stream of
well-trained environmental specialists if our society is to meet the
environmental challenges of the future.”
Testifying to the House Appropriations Committee on May 9, 2001, EPA
Administrator Christine Todd Whitman stated: “In addition to supporting
a strong intramural science program at the Agency the FY 2002 request
provides $110 million for the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program
which includes competitively awarded grants and fellowships. The STAR
program continues to successfully engage the best environmental
scientists and engineers from academia through a variety of competitive,
peer reviewed grants.”
Investing in future environmental scientists through the STAR Fellowship
program is essential to the EPA's mission and the nation's capacity to
meet environmental challenges. At a time when there is widespread
agreement on the need for environmental decisions to be based on
science, graduate fellowships are essential to keep the best future
scientists and engineers in the environmental field.
No justification has been provided for the proposed termination of the
program.
A sample letter along with a list of Congressional addresses can be
found at http://www.cnie.org/NCSE/SciencePolicy/?FID=1682. Please send
your letter before the end of April. Please send copies to NCSE
(dbraden@NCSEonline.org or fax to 202-628-4311) of all letters that you
send and any responses you receive. Please also send copies to EPA
Administrator Christine Todd Whitman.
For more information on the STAR Fellowship program, follow the links to
"Will Congress Catch EPA's Falling STAR?", which quotes NCSE Senior
Scientist David Blockstein, Science, March 29 2002: 2345-2347 and an
NCSE-prepared fact sheet at
http://www.cnie.org/NCSE/SciencePolicy/?FID=1679.
On behalf of NCSE, thank you for your help.
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