US students agree fee to make amends for slavery

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY students have voted to pay a $27 (£20) per semester fee in reparations to the descendants of slaves sold by the elite institution in the 1800s.

The “Reconciliation Contribution” fee would create one of the first reparation funds of its kind in the US and provide money for the education of the slaves’ relatives.

The creation of the fund was approved in a referendum run by the Georgetown University Student Association, with 2,541 voting in favour of the measure while 1,304 opposed it.

It would levy a $27 fee on students each semester to create a fund for the descendants of 272 slaves sold by the university’s Jesuit founders in 1838 to pay off debt.

If they succeed in getting the fund created, it would raise more than $400,000 in its first year, based on the university’s current undergraduate enrolment figures.

The money would be administered by a board made up of students and descendants of the university’s slaves to provide money for the education of descendants, and health care initiatives.

The fee would be added on to an academic bill that is already around $54,000 a year in tuition and fees for undergraduate students.

Room and board costs average an additional $16,500, bringing the yearly cost of attendance to more than $70,000.

However, the results are not binding on the university, which was founded by Jesuits in 1789 and is located in an affluent neighbourhood of Washington DC.

Todd Olson, the school’s vice president for student affairs, said the university “values the engagement of our students”.

“Our students are contributing to a national conversation and we share their commitment to addressing Georgetown’s history with slavery,” Mr Olson said in a statement.