W&J not maintaining promise of previously awarded funds for the Magellan Project

W&J not maintaining promise of previously awarded funds for the Magellan Project
Why this petition matters
Current seniors at Washington & Jefferson College (the class of 2022) worked long and hard to propose Magellan projects to travel abroad during their sophomore year of college, and were previously approved and rewarded money by the Magellan committee through a signed contract. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic travel was delayed, however, signed contracts of monetary awards were promised to the students, and now they are no longer guaranteed. Senior students are being forced to reapply and restart the exhausting proposal process in hopes of being reapproved (with the possibility of losing their already approved Magellan and their promised money). In addition to this, students are now only allowed to travel to countries that are defined as level 1 or 2 in terms of COVID precaution, despite the United States having nearly 10 times more covid cases than most of the level 3 or 4 countries. 27 students were robbed of their experience to complete their accepted and awarded Magellan projects, and now the college is refusing to allow the students to collect their money as promised to complete this opportunity. The students would like for the college to keep their promise by giving these students the money that they legally own (without having to reapply for what is rightfully theirs), as well as have the ability to sign a waiver that allows them to travel to any country of their choosing at their own risk.