In a dispute over a deadline, the U.S. Department of Education has refused applications for a prestigious fellowship from UC Berkeley graduate students.

Outraged UC Berkeley officials say the federal agency is denying 30 doctoral students a shot at landing a Fulbright-Hays dissertation fellowship because of a mailing mix-up that wasn't their fault.

Federal education officials contend that the Berkeley applications - delivered late by FedEx Corp. - are ineligible because they were sent a day after the Oct. 20 postmark deadline.

The university and the Education Department have been tangling ever since, although students didn't learn until Tuesday that the department will not consider them for the awards.

"They are messing with our lives," said Jason Seawright, a 27-year-old doctoral student in political science who must do research in Argentina, Peru and Venezuela to finish his dissertation on change in South America's political party system.

"If I don't spend time in South America, I will not complete my dissertation and I will not have a job," he said. "This is the ultimate hurdle in getting a Ph.D. in this field. There is an amazing financial loss in not being able to compete for this."

Berkeley officials blame the blown deadline on a FedEx courier, who missed a scheduled Oct. 20 pickup that would have guaranteed an overnight delivery to the education agency in Washington, D.C. FedEx officials have acknowledged the mistake and wrote two letters of apology to the university.

Education Department officials have not budged, however, despite the FedEx letters and protests from UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl, who flew to Washington, D.C., last month to make a personal appeal. Berkeley officials believe the FedEx shipping label - which is dated Oct. 20 - is sufficient evidence that they complied with the department's postmark.

The department notified Berdahl last week that its decision to reject Berkeley applications would stand.

Angry at the agency's stance, Berkeley officials decided to make the dispute public Wednesday.

"It's been frustrating and upsetting to those who have worked and worked on this issue," said UC Berkeley spokeswoman Marie Felde. "We believe that our students are being unfairly punished."

But department officials remained firm late Wednesday, issuing a statement that emphasized that they must enforce strict deadlines to avoid any appearance of favoritism in awarding the competitive grants.

"UC Berkeley was negligent in failing to mail its application on time, despite the fact that for years the university has applied for this program each fall," Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education Sally L. Stroup said in a statement. "This year, the university knew since August that the deadline was October 20."

Though Berkeley officials say that a graduate division employee twice called FedEx on Oct. 20 to confirm that the applications would be picked up, Education Department officials said the school should have arranged for another delivery service.

"The reality is that when it became clear that Federal Express would not arrive in time, a simple trip to the post office would have ensured that the university's application met the deadline," Stroup said in the statement. "Sixty other institutions met the deadline."

Berdahl delivered the bad news to the graduate students in a meeting Tuesday, according to Seawright and history student Carl Freire. Berdahl reassured them that the university would help find money to pay for their research and keep them on track to finish their dissertations.

Doctoral students at UC Berkeley have a long history of winning the Fulbright grants to conduct research in other countries. Last year, half of the 30 applicants from the campus won awards ranging from $19,000 to $64,000. In 2002, 11 of 21 applicants won grants.

For 2004-05, the Department of Education expects to award more than $4 million in grants to roughly 170 graduate students.

While most of the UC Berkeley students have applied for other fellowships, the Fulbright is the most coveted because it's the most generous. The awards are highly competitive, drawing applicants from such graduate programs at Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Princeton universities.

"With Fulbright-Hays, you create your own budget, so that allows you to put more flexibility into what you might do," said Freire, whose dissertation requires that he spend a year in Japan studying the relationships between religion and government. "I was hoping for $30,000 because I need to cover housing, expenses, research materials and academic fees."

Freire said he may not have won the Fulbright but can't believe that a dispute over a mailing date will keep him from trying.

"We wanted a chance to compete with our peers around the country," he said. "We jumped through all the hoops and for reasons outside of our own control, we don't get the chance to compete."

The fellowships for doctoral students are one of two Fulbright award programs funded annually by Congress. The International Institute of Education Fulbright program is run by the State Department and offers grants to recent graduates, scholars, professionals and artists who want to study and do research abroad.