[The New York Times]
Missed Pickup Means 30 College Students Lose Chance at Fellowship
February 5, 2004
  By Dean E. Murphy

A missed courier pickup, an honest clerk and an unyielding federal bureaucracy have conspired to deny 30 college students here the chance to compete for a prestigious Fulbright research grant.

"It seems surreal to me," said Mary Ann Mason, dean of the graduate division at the University of California, Berkeley. "It is an unnecessary, foolish, tragic incident."

The students, all enrolled in doctoral studies, got the news on Tuesday night from the university's chancellor, Robert M. Berdahl, that their applications were disqualified because they were late. Dr. Berdahl had earlier flown to Washington in a failed bid to persuade education officials in the Bush administration to change their minds. ...