This petition is calling for Worcester Polytechnic Institute to waive the Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) requirement for students who were supposed to be completing their IQP abroad D term 2020. With the recent change in structure of our term due to COVID-19, the core meaning and requirements of D term projects have been lost. The many changes occurring in America to hopefully lessen the impact of COVID-19 have created an atmosphere where it is not realistic to ask students to complete a project as important as the IQP. We cannot predict how the situation with COVID-19 will change in the next month, week, or day which makes life very unstable for many people. Removing students from their typical college environment creates new issues to overcome such as their living situation, changes to their learning environment, and communication with professors and peers. This combined with the concerns outlined below gives ample reason for WPI to relinquish the IQP requirement for students who were meant to complete their IQP abroad in D term.

Group partners, advisors, and sponsors are currently separated which forces them to communicate electronically, where motivation may decrease due to miscommunication, lack of accountability, and scheduling issues. Working from different time zones makes scheduling hard and having to work with people in multiple (2+) time zones makes scheduling online calls even harder. Another fundamental issue arising is that organizations are requiring their employees to work from home or even closing in some cases. Many IQPs require students to collaborate with local organizations at their project centers. With the change to remote IQPs, we are still expected to communicate with organizations for our projects. This may become increasingly difficult due to organizations having to adjust their focuses to make remote work successful. As the economy continues to fall and the government adjusts spending to pay for important supplies, there is likely to be an increase in nonprofit organizations shutting down because they cannot afford to continue as normal. Many of the organizations students work with are either government funded or non-profits, meaning they would be more strongly affected by changes to our economy.

The concerns previously stated bring to question the educational value of IQPs that are remotely conducted. The IQP is meant to be an experience where students can collaborate with peers to learn and grow. Asking students to continue either their original project or a new project remotely is a challenge that many are unequipped for due to the large amount of challenges students, advisors, and sponsors cannot predict and prepare for in such a short time. Many students do not want to push this requirement to the next academic year because they either would not be able to graduate on time or they cannot afford to graduate any later than planned. During this time, WPI must remain aware of the many changes and challenges occurring in students’ lives and maintain flexibility in order to prevent college education from becoming a burden. By waiving the rest of the IQP requirement, WPI would be allowing students to use their term in a more productive manner through opening up time for online courses or other valuable educational experiences.