David Dunn, Chief of Staff for U.S. Department of Education, today issued the following statement on eligible majors under the Academic Competitiveness/National SMART grant program:

"Recent news reports have suggested that Evolutionary Biology is not an eligible major under the new National SMART grant program. This is incorrect and in fact the opposite is true. Evolutionary biology is a major eligible to receive National SMART grants under the 'Ecology, Evolution, Systematics and Population Biology' category of majors.

"The misunderstanding occurred as the result of a draft document that omitted evolutionary biology from a list of majors put forth for use by colleges. As soon as the omission came to our attention, we took steps to correct it. However, regardless of its omission on that one document, evolutionary biology was and continues to be National SMART grant eligible.

"The Department has made the necessary correction and you can view the updated list of majors at the following link: http://www.ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/Gen0615.html."

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