Georgetown University students overwhelmingly voted this week for a tuition hike, which would pay reparations to the descendants of slaves. Over 66 percent of students who voted Thursday on a Georgetown University Student Association referendum favored a $27.20 semester fee to make amends for slaves owned by Jesuits in the 1830s. A final decision on the nonbinding resolution rests with the university’s leadership. “The results of the referendum are as follows: 66.08% for yes (2541 votes), 33.92% for no (1304 votes). This means that the referendum passes,” GUSA Elections tweeted Thursday. Todd Olson, vice president for student affairs, said in a statement that students were adopting one of many ways to respond to “legacies of slavery.” “This student referendum provides valuable insight into student perspectives and will help guide our continued engagement with students, faculty and staff, members of the Descendant community, and the Society of Jesus,” Mr. Olson said, the Washington Examiner reported Friday. The 272 slaves in question were sold in 1838 to keep the university open, the Examiner reported. The results of the referendum are as follows: 66.08% for yes (2541 votes), 33.92% for no (1304 votes). This means that the referendum passes. — GUSA Elections (@GUSAElections) April 12, 2019 Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.<doc-sep>The school still needs to approve the referendum before it could take effect. Georgetown University could become the first college in the nation to mandate a fee to benefit descendants of slaves sold by the university nearly 200 years ago -- a debate that takes place against the backdrop of a broader political conversation unfolding on the 2020 presidential campaign trail about reparations. By almost a 2-to-1 margin, students approved the measure, which still must be approved by the university to go into effect. The school's undergraduates voted Thursday on the referendum, which would increase tuition by $27.20 per semester to create a fund benefiting descendants of the 272 slaves sold to pay off the Georgetown Jesuits' debt -- a move that saved the university financially. Todd Olson, vice president for student affairs at Georgetown University, in a statement issued after the vote, lauded the students' efforts saying " university values the engagement of our students and appreciates that 3,845 students made their voices heard in yesterday’s election. Our students are contributing to an important national conversation and we share their commitment to addressing Georgetown’s history with slavery." The university has vowed to "carefully review the results of the referendum, and regardless of the outcome, will remain committed to engaging with students, Descendants, and the broader Georgetown community and addressing its historical relationship to slavery," Matt Hill, the university's media relations manager, told ABC News in a statement. "The Jesuits sold my family and 40 other families so you could be here," sophomore Melisande Short-Colomb, a Georgetown student, said during a town hall to discuss the issue last week. She's one of four students currently attending the university under an admissions policy that considers the descendants of the 272 slaves as "legacy" students. There is an obligation for Georgetown to reconcile its sins, and that obligation falls squarely on the institution. That group also includes Elizabeth Thomas, who will receive her master's degree from Georgetown University in May and is a desk assistant at ABC News in Washington. She's a descendant of Sam and Betsy Harris, who were enslaved and sold by Georgetown University in 1838. If the current referendum passes, it's unclear whether Thomas would receive any reparations in the future. A week ahead of the vote, Short-Colomb joined 100 other students packed into Georgetown's Leavey Hall on campus as the gathering mulled the impact of the proposal. "No one in this room was here in 1838 when this happened," Short-Colomb said. Still, she thinks the funds could help make amends for the university's slave-holding past. "But we have a chance today to make a difference, so I'm going to pay my $54," she said, referring to the two semesters before she'd graduate. A longstanding political debate The conversation on the Washington campus reflects a larger discussion as reparations take the stage ahead of the 2020 election. A number of the Democratic presidential candidates have weighed in on the issue of reparations for African American descendants of slaves. The issue of reparations isn't new. It's been contentiously refuted since the end of the Civil War. One of the earliest proposals came more than 150 years ago when a general suggested Confederate-owned land should be confiscated and divided up to provide the family of freed slaves 40 acres and a mule. NAACP President Derrick Johnson supports a reparations measure, originally introduced by Rep. John Conyers and reintroduced in every Congress since 1989, aimed at creating a commission to "make recommendations concerning any form of apology and compensation to begin the long delayed process of atonement for slavery." The NAACP began collectively backing it in 2014. That year, journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote an essay supporting reparations that garnered national attention. "Here we are in 2019 talking about it again. It is a sore spot for this nation," Johnson told ABC News. "It is something that we must address, so we can get past this moment in time in a way in which the legacy of slavery, the legacy of segregation, the legacy of institutional racism can once in for all be done away with and we can all prosper as a nation as one whole community." Last week, during Rev. Al Sharpton's annual National Action Network convention, the first major gathering of 2020 for those seeking the support of black voters, a number of presidential hopefuls, including former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke and former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, directly addressed the issue. O'Rourke said he'd support H.R. 40, a measure re-introduced this year by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and which could be a means to study the impact of slavery in a way that is "realistically forceful and effective to help African Americans who never had the issue of wealth that was inherited." Other candidates supporting some form of reparations include Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who said that as president he'd support a reparations bill, which he sees as an issue of "inter-generational injustice." Ideas for what reparations could look like are myriad. California Sen. Kamala Harris on NPR recently floated the idea of studying the impact of "the effects of generations of discrimination and institutional racism and determine what can be done, in terms of intervention, to correct course." Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who spoke at the National Action Network last week, reiterated his support for Rep. Jim Clyburn's 10/20/30 plan, an effort the South Carolina congressman said aims to help counties that had a poverty level of more 20% for more than three decades. Those communities would then receive at least 10% of federal funds from a specific program. Booker did not say whether he considered the measure a form of reparations. Clyburn, however, said the measure "absolutely" is. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders initially indicated that he would not support a reparations bill in Congress, saying on ABC's "The View," "I think that right now, our job is to address the crises facing the American people and our communities, and I think there are better ways to do that than just writing out a check." However, at the conference he vowed to support the perennial reparations measure. "If the House and Senate pass that bill, of course I would sign it," he said, adding that he thought there needed to be study about reparations. Paying for sins of the past The political discussion over reparations as a matter of policy comes as the university still struggles with its past. After news of Georgetown's slave sale surfaced, the university apologized. In April 2017, the school rededicated two buildings named after two former Jesuit University presidents who facilitated the sale. Not all students are on board with the proposed tuition increase. Some who oppose it expressed concerns as to where the money would be spent and how long they'd on the hook for paying. Several students noted they were working to support themselves and any additional costs wouldn't be welcomed. Others complained the referendum wasn't comprehensive enough. Still, others felt it's not the responsibility of the current generation to pay for sins of the past -- a stance that's come up in previous political debates. "It's unjust to compel 7,000-plus people to pay for the university's historical sins," said Haley Grande, a sophomore in student leadership at the university. "There is an obligation for Georgetown to reconcile its sins, and that obligation falls squarely on the institution." In a statement obtained early Friday by ABC News, Todd Olson, vice president of student affairs at Georgetown, said, in part: "The university values the engagement of our students and appreciates that 3,845 students made their voices heard in yesterday's election. Our students are contributing to an important national conversation and we share their commitment to addressing Georgetown’s history with slavery. "We understand that the goals of the student referendum are to honor the 272 enslaved individuals sold by the Maryland Jesuits in 1838 and to advance 'causes and proposals that directly benefit descendants still residing in underprivileged communities.'" ABC News' Justin Gomez and Armando Garcia contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Students at Georgetown University voted by a 2 to 1 landslide to increase their tuition in order to raise funds for reparations to descendants of slaves who were sold to pay off the university founders' debts back in 1838. While the tuition increase - $27.20 per student per semester – is dwarfed by the school's $53,520-a-year price tag, it would be mandatory, making Georgetown the first school in the country to effectively tax its students in a bid to right its own historic wrongs. The measure must be approved by the university's board of directors to take effect. If approved, the fee will be collected starting in 2020. Also on rt.com Reparations for slavery in 2020: Justice at last or attention seeking by Democrats? (DEBATE) Almost exactly two-thirds – 66.08 percent – of Georgetown students approved the measure, with turnout among the highest ever reported for a school election. The student government passed it by a 20-4 landslide in a February vote. Not all students were pleased with the result. Student senator Sam Dubke, who led the movement against the proposition, told the College Fix he was smeared as a racist – both in person and on social media – and that posters advising students to vote "no" were destroyed. Other opponents of the measure decried the policy's disproportionate burden on low-income students and its compulsory nature and questioned how the funds would actually be used. The $27.20 figure was chosen "in honor of the 272 people sold by Georgetown," according to the College Fix, which obtained a copy of the resolution. Proceeds would be earmarked for "Charitable purposes directly benefiting the descendants of [the 272 sold slaves] and other persons once enslaved by the Maryland Jesuits – with special consideration given to causes and proposals directly benefiting those descendants still residing in proud and underprivileged communities." A special Board of Trustees would be appointed to disburse the funds. Also on rt.com PC culture targeting art, literature & theatre puts West in fight against history Four descendants of the "GU272" – as the measure refers to them – already attend the university under an admissions policy that considers them "legacy students," adopted in 2016 to "offer an admissions edge to descendants of slaves as part of a comprehensive atonement" for Georgetown's slavery-tainted past. The university made a formal apology for the sale in 2017 and renamed two buildings in honor of the people sold. "The Jesuits sold my family and 40 other families so you could be here," Melisande Short-Colomb, one of those students, told a student town hall meeting last week during a discussion of the measure, though she admitted "no one in this room was here in 1838 when this happened." The sophomore praised the effort to "make amends," adding, "We have a chance today to make a difference, so I'm going to pay my $54." It's unclear how much of that $54 would end up back in her pocket. If you like this story, share it with a friend!<doc-sep>
On Thursday, students at Georgetown University voted to raise tuition at the school by $27.20 per semester to provide reparations to the descendants of 272 slaves owned and later sold by the school in the 1800s. The vote was part of a nonbinding student referendum. Approximately 66% of students voted in favor. "The university values the engagement of our students and appreciates that 3,845 students made their voices heard in yesterday's election. Our students are contributing to an important national conversation and we share their commitment to addressing Georgetown's history with slavery," said Todd Olson, Georgetown Vice President for Student Affairs, in a written statement. Olson's statement indicates that the funds are intended to be used to advance "causes and proposals that directly benefit descendants still residing in underprivileged communities." Exactly how those causes and proposals will be enacted is still to be determined. "There are many approaches that enable our community to respond to the legacies of slavery," he writes. "The University has made a commitment to further our efforts in dialogue and partnership with the Descendant community, seeking to promote work that draws on the inherent strengths and expertise of our community in collaboration with the Descendant and Jesuit communities and that promotes racial justice." The move would raise approximately $380,800 per year from the university's 7,000 undergraduate students starting during the fall 2020 semester. For the 2019-2020 school year, Georgetown's undergraduate tuition is $27,720 per semester, or about $55,440 per year, making it one of the most expensive schools in the country. Georgetown has one of the wealthiest student bodies in the country. According to analysis by The New York Times, the median family income of a student from Georgetown is $229,100, and 74% come from the highest-earning 20% of American households. At its founding, Georgetown relied financially on profits from Jesuit-owned plantations in Maryland. According to The New York Times, when the school was in need of funds in 1838, the Jesuit priests who founded and ran the college decided to sell the slaves on these plantations. The sale of those individuals resulted in the separation of numerous families and forced hundreds into horrific conditions. It raised the 2019 equivalent of roughly $3.3 million for the school. Today, the school's endowment is valued at $1.66 billion. "The school wouldn't be here without them," Shepard Thomas, a junior at Georgetown who is a part of the student organization that advocated for the referendum, tells The New York Times. "Students here always talk about changing the world after they graduate. Why not change the world when you're here?" In 2016, Georgetown decided to provide admissions preference to the descendants of the slaves sold by the school. "It makes me feel happy that we, as students, decided to set a precedent for the betterment of people's lives," says Thomas, who is himself a descendant of slaves sold by the university.