Georgetown Students Vote in Favor of New Mandatory Fee to Fund Reparations
“measure calls for the university to start with a fee of $27.20 per semester in the fall of 2020”
This measure still has to be cleared by the administration but is there any doubt that will happen?
Inside Higher Ed reports:
Georgetown Students Vote to Pay Reparations
As the debate over reparations heats up, Georgetown University students voted Thursday by a large margin to impose a fee on themselves to pay reparations for the university’s ties to slavery.
The student election commission announced the results early this morning. The measure attracted just under two-thirds of voters and passed, 2,541 to 1,304.
The measure calls for the university to start with a fee of $27.20 per semester in the fall of 2020, “in honor of the 272 people sold by Georgetown,” referring to the slaves sold by Jesuits to finance the university in its early days. The resolution says that proceeds from the fund “will be allocated for charitable purposes directly benefiting the descendants of the GU272 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.”
The proposed fee would be a tiny fraction of the price of attending Georgetown, where tuition alone is more than $55,000 this year.
While the measure is not binding on the university, the vote comes as Democratic presidential candidates have elevated the national debate over reparations. The vote also marks a potential shift in higher education.
In recent years, many colleges — including Georgetown — have conducted studies of their ties to slavery. Those studies have led to publications, academic conferences and monuments that honor the labor of slaves.
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Comments
Virtue signalling at its finest.
Let’s pretend for a second that this is really a sincere effort to right the wrongs of the past…I’m curious:
How are students paying a fee somehow making up for the university’s past transgressions? That’s like making me pay a fine because my dentist parked in a handicapped spot.
Are black students going to be required to pay this fee? If so, how is that justified?
If blacks are not required to pay the fee, how much black heritage does one need to have to escape the fee? 1/2? 1/4? 3/4? Maybe its pro-rated?
How about blacks who’s families are recent immigrants? Do they have to pay? What’s the justification either way?
What about foreign students?
For how many years does this need to occur before the university’s debt is paid in full?
This is a specific corporation that committed an offense against specific people, and therefore owes compensation to their heirs. Why would there be any difference between black and white students? all current students share eually in the benefits the university got from that offense, so should share eually in the duty to compensate for it.
Start the count down clock. It will be almost no time at all before accusations start flying about how the money is used, or about the inappropriateness of letting white people take part in the decision.
This has nothing to do with reparations generally. This is about reparation to the victims’ heirs for a specific offense committed by this corporation against specific people. If there were a slaveholder still alive, with money available, would it not be legitimate to discuss whether he should compensate the heirs of his slaves?