Some aggrieved students of the University of Liberia (UL), have threatened unspecified actions against the school administration if they maintained their stands on the US$480 being charged as graduation fees. Accordingly, they have made all efforts in meeting the school administration to addressed their concerns but to no avail, as the school is now in the process of issuing clearance with $480 as graduation fees, something which they see as disservice to the over 500 aggrieved students. The over 500 students, who are largely from the UL Graduate School said it is very discouraging during these difficult times in the country, couple with the opening of schools for academic year 2024/2025, to allow them pay US$480 as graduation fees. The aggrieved students asserted that keeping all factor constant, they are appealing to the UL administration to allow them pay $420 instead of the $480 fees being charged. Speaking in an exclusive interview with this paper over the weekend in Monrovia, the group accused the leadership of the Senior Class headed by Madam Princess Johnson, along with her deputies of masterminding the payment of the $480 as graduation fees for reasons best known to themselves. They lamented that backed by the school administration, Madam Johnson and her vice president, Armah G. Folly, who are from the department of Environment Study and Climate Change, along with her Secretary General, Wilfred Gonlor, who is from the department of Regional Science, are the ones imposing said amount on them. The accused the Senior Class SG of being in the constant habit of removing critical voices from the general chatroom which was created by the student leadership for the graduation class. They indicated that the class leadership is strongly being supported by some individual within the system, as the fees being charge was never agreed upon by the larger body, but the class leadership along with the school administration, adding “we have tried on several occasion in expressing our dissatisfaction to the administration but to no avail.” The breakdown in the 2023/2024 graduation fees include; class project $50, class yearbook $20, beach day $20, class night $20, sport day $10 school soverneur $140 and academical $220 (includes graduation gown) grand total $480. “The leadership of the senior class is the one imposing a fee of US$480 on the student body, something which was unilaterally done within their leadership and not the decision of the general body. All we are asking for is to reduce the fees to at least $420 instead of the $480 in order to allow everyone the opportunity to form part of the graduation process because some of our colleagues cannot afford that amount,” they said. They continues: “We are all mature people and all we are saying is that we don’t need sports day, beach party and the project fees should be reduce from $50 to at least 25, but they are not willing to listen to us and that is one of the key reasons why we are here.” The aggrieved students noted that some of their colleagues are still indebted to the school, as they are finding it difficult to pay their upstanding balance and at the same time pay their graduation fees. “Most of our colleagues are appealing to the class leadership and the school administration to see reason in reducing the fees because currently as we speak times are hard, and up to date, they have refused to listen to our plead. After paying $20 for year book, they are still charging us $5 for photos again” they said. “Most of our colleagues are parents and schools have just open and because of our graduation, we cannot allow our children to stay at home because of no money to register them. We were just about to pay our children school fees before graduation business came out. We have explained all of these things to the class leadership but they don’t want to understand, they are making us to look like we are so poor that we cannot afford to pay our own graduation fees and that is not the case, we are only appealing to them to reduce the fees being charge because of the limited time that was given to us.” The students said they have been told that whether they boycott the plan graduation or not, they will still pay the fees being charge anytime they shows up for their documents. “We will be meeting to decide on the next course of action whether to meet some legal minds in advising us on the way forward because we have tried all means possible to resolved this matter but to no avail and the graduation is on for September 20, 2024,” they said.