International students are already greatly affected during this pandemic, COVID'19. Most of us do not have a part-time job because the university is closed, or an internship because companies have frozen recruitments for a while. Some of our hard-earned internships are even canceled due to pandemic! Hence the only source to pay our tuition fees is through education loans that come with high-interest rates.

An increase of $700 (approx) in tuition fees during these tough times does not seem fair to the majority of international UTD students. More so because we might not even be able to use the university resources completely, as a result of the pandemic.

• We might have a majority of classes online. So we miss out on face-to-face interaction with professors.
• Sometimes, due to technical issues online, we cannot hear the professors clearly. 
• We are not sure if we will be able to meet with professors, for any doubt clarification, in their cabins.
• We are not sure if we will be allowed to use the library, due to the practice of social distancing.

Considering the above points, we request the university authorities to reduce the tuition fee and make it either lesser than or equal to that of the previous academic year. We think this is a fair request because it reduces any additional stress on the students, who are already struggling financially. As a result of fee reduction, we can focus more on education rather than worry about paying off the heavier tuition fees.

Just as UTD has supported international students in the case of ICE rule changes, we hope that it would support us in this case as well. We hope the university would give us a piece of happy news regarding tuition fees.