The President of the Republic of Liberia, H.E. Dr. George Weah, announced tuition-free for undergraduate students at the University of Liberia and all public universities in Liberia. The government's investment is to develop the human resource capacity for everyone who cannot afford to pay their fees. Every year, the University of Liberia requests $175 from graduates as the administration portion of the graduation fees. Amidst the COVID-19, 2019/2020, graduates are requested to pay $325 per student from the Undergraduate level as graduation fees. $150 has been agreed by 93 graduating students in a small meeting as an addition to the $175 which sum up to $325. 3,000 students are expecting to graduate. A total of 975,000 USD will be used for graduation activities.

We, the Concern Graduating Students (CGS) for the class of 2019/2020, is calling upon every graduating student to sign this petition to the graduating student's leadership, Vice-President and the president of the University of Liberia, Dr. Nelson, to reduce the $175 to $100, which is around 43% reduction and we are also asking the leadership to consider a reduction from the $150 to $100.

The reasons are as follows

1. COVID 19 has incurred serious financial challenges to both self-sponsored students and sponsors, parents, and/or guidance of students. Some have lost their jobs while others are going down drastically in business due to the current economic crisis within the country.

2. If we want to promote the free quality education pronounced by H.E George Weah, we should consider every financial hardship on the students, including graduation fees.

3. The payment deadline is short and the amount is huge taking into consideration the high level of unemployment among students as well as sponsors, parents, and/or guidance.