News

Georgetown students to vote on fees to pay for slavery reparations fund

by Owen Daugherty - 04/11/19 12:32 PM ET

Students at Georgetown University are reportedly set to vote on implementing a fee that would be steered into a reparation fund for descendants of slaves the institution sold to pay off debts.

Undergraduate students at the university are scheduled to vote Thursday on a “Reconciliation Contribution” fee of $27.20 each semester, which is believed to be one of the first such reparation funds for a big U.S. institution, according to The Associated Press.

The fees would go toward a fund used for projects serving underprivileged communities where some of the descendants of the slaves sold by Georgetown live, according to the AP.

{mosads}Georgetown sold 272 slaves in 1838 to pay off debt, the news site reported. The university has a memorial for the slaves sold and offers admissions preference for the descendants of those slaves.

The Georgetown vote would be nonbinding, however.

A Georgetown official said the university values the engagement of students and said it welcomes students’ input in addressing its history with slavery, while also noting the vote would not steer the institution’s policies.

“We value the engagement of our students and appreciate that they are making their voices heard and contributing to an important national conversation,” Dr. Todd Olson, vice president for student affairs at Georgetown University, told The Hill in a statement.

“Student referendums help to express important student perspectives but do not create university policy and are not binding on the university,” he added.

“We remain committed to working with students — regardless of the outcome of the referendum — to develop education and programming that will enable all students to meaningfully engage with Georgetown’s history of slavery and support opportunities for collaboration between students and Descendants,” Olson also said.

The idea of reparations for slavery is being broached by several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) saying he will introduce legislation to create a commission to study granting reparations to African-Americans.

Fellow candidates Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), as well as former Rep. Beto O’ Rourke (D-Texas), have signaled willingness to look into the issue further.

Updated at 1:48 p.m.

Tags Cory Booker Elizabeth Warren