Petition to Demand Monetary Reparations for the GU272 Descendants

Dear Members of the Georgetown University Community,

In 1838, the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus sold 272 enslaved people as a means to ensure the financial vitality of Georgetown University (“GU272”). The GU272 Advocacy Team is a student organization dedicated to advocating for Descendants of persons trafficked by the Maryland Jesuits. In the fall of 2018, the Team partnered with the Georgetown University Student Association to lead an outreach campaign with the ultimate goal of establishing a $27.20 semesterly fee that would be applied to student tuition bills, similarly to the student activity fee.  

On April 11th of 2019, 2,541 students voted in favor of the assessment of this student fee that would be allocated to Descendants of the GU272. This was the highest voter turnout in the University’s history.

Initially, President of the University, John J. DeGioia gave a lukewarm response to the passage of the referendum: “we’ll have to take one step at a time.” He emailed: “With this strong indication from our students, I will engage key leaders in our Georgetown, Descendant, and Jesuit communities and our faculty, board, and student leadership to chart a path forward.” While the University is not bound to enact the student referendum after its passage, communications from University Leadership stated that a board consisting of five students and five Descendants would oversee the fund with broad administrative support.

Towards the end of 2019, President DeGioia articulated his desire to lead a fundraising effort in lieu of assessing the semesterly fee. The funds would support projects in direct benefit to Descendants. He promised the Georgetown community that this fund would meet or exceed the dollars that would have been raised through the $27.20 student fee. This decision was met with frustrations from members of the campus community who opposed charity as a means to achieve justice, voicing support for reparative justice instead.

Since then, the University has failed to deliver on any of their pledges to provide support to GU272 Descendants, going even so far as to erase mentions of these promises. Now, we are turning to the student body for support of the GU272 Descendants. We are responsible for ensuring another year does not pass without University administration taking appropriate action. This transformative work is far bigger than the efforts put forth by GUSA or the GU272 Advocacy Team; it requires broad support from the student body.

Please sign the petition below in support of the University paying previously promised monetary reparations:

Students

Organizations

  1. Nile Blass (COL ‘22, President)
  2. Thomas Leonard (COL ‘23, Vice President)
  3. Leo Rassieur (COL ‘22, Speaker of the Senate)
  4. Rowlie Flores (COL ‘22, Vice Speaker of the Senate)
  5. Genevieve Grenier (MSB ‘24, Chief of Staff)
  6. Jaden Cobb (COL ‘25)
  7. Bella Fassett (SFS ‘24)
  8. Connor Martin (COL ‘25)
  9. Brett Guessford (COL ‘23, Senator)
  10. Nirvana Khan (SFS ‘24, Senator)
  11. Julia Thomas (COL’24)
  12. Aidan Sheridan-Rabideau
  13. Audrey Ledford (SFS ‘24)
  14. Sarah Coulibaly (SFS ‘24)
  15. Kariel Bennett (COL’ 23)
  16. Janelle Goodman (NHS 23)
  17. Lauren D’Amico (SFS ‘24)
  18. Jazarah Shim (COL ‘24)
  19. Gillian Dixon (COL ‘24)
  20. Libby McCoy (COL ‘23)
  21. Charlotte Correiro (COL ‘24)
  22. Scott Jackson (SFS’24)
  23. Johnny Sussek (COL ‘24, Senator)
  24. Jusitn Liu (COL ‘24)
  25. Bianca Gonzales (COL ‘23, Senator)
  26. Mirka Sosa (COL ‘23, Senator)
  27. Esther Wroth (SFS ‘24)
  28. Jaida Forbes (COL ‘24)
  29. Autumn Davis (COL’24)
  30. Valerie Blinder (COL ‘24)
  31. Nicholas Lohman (SFS ‘24)
  32. Kessley Janvier (COL’25)
  33. Ife John-Idiagbonya (COL’25)
  34. Phoebe Chambers (COL ‘25, Senator)
  35. Sanjana Ranganathan (SFS ‘25, Senator)
  36. Chijioke Achebe (SFS ‘25, Senator)
  37. Bayla Huff (COL ‘25, Senator)
  38. Ellie Poling (COL ‘25)
  39.  Joshua Bernard-Pearl (SFS ‘25, Senator)
  40.  Katharine Chesnutt (SFS ‘24)
  41.  Cleary Waldo (SFS ‘22)
  42.  Fabiola Castro Jimenez (COL ‘22)
  43.  Chris Dorado (SFS ‘24)
  44.  Rachel Klein (SFS ‘24)
  45.  Kenneth Boggess (SFS ‘24)
  46. Shevani Tewari (SFS ‘24)
  47. Casey Goss (NHS ‘25)
  48. Alexandra Kim-Lee (SFS '24)
  49. Lauryn Ping (COL ‘23)
  50. Alicia Gopal (COL ‘25, Senator)
  51. Taylor Kahn-Perry (COL ‘22)
  52. Alex Nelson (COL ‘23)
  53. Sneha Santosh (MSB ‘24)
  54. Viha Vishwanathan (MSB ‘24)
  55. Sam Li (SFS ‘24, Senator)
  56. Andrew Chan (MSB ‘24)
  57. Deena Eichhorn (COL ‘24)
  58. Isabel Janovsky (COL ‘23)
  59. Tommy Ormsby (COL '23, Senator)
  60. Kat Lytkowski (SFS ‘24)
  61. Lamoussa Tapsoba (COL’24)
  62. Victoria Feazelle (SFS ‘22)
  63. Sarah Khan (SFS ‘24)
  64. Jennifer Martinez Sánchez (COL ‘22)
  65. Phil Scholer (COL ‘22)
  66. Michelle Renslo (COL ‘22)
  67. Alanna Cronk (COL ‘23)
  68. Jacob Livesay (COL ‘23)
  69. Molly Kenney (COL ‘25)
  70. Noriko O’Shea (SFS ‘25)
  71. Dane Tedder (COL ‘24)
  72. Kristen Xiao (SFS ‘25)
  73. Ari Kane (COL ‘24)
  74. Ashlyn Kunerth (COL ‘24)
  75. Connor Coyle (SFS ‘24)
  76. Aarushi Gupta (SFS’24)
  77. Katherine Wilkison (SFS ‘25)
  78. Nicolas Stewart (COL ‘24)
  79. Arjun Badami (COL ‘24)
  80. Simran Chaudhry (COL ‘25)
  81. Kayleigh Coppinger (COL ‘23)
  82. Ananya Shah (SFS ‘25)
  83. Jack Quinn (SFS ‘24)
  84. Nina Yee (COL ‘23)
  85. Nikita Dhar (MSB ‘23)
  86. Olive Brogan (COL ‘22)
  87. Meghan Hunt (COL ‘23)
  88. Bailey Coghlan (NHS ‘25)
  89. Lincoln Le (COL ‘24)
  90. Neha Malik (SFS’23)
  91. Olivia Lebo-Planas
  92. Amy Eastman (SSP/SFS Graduate Council President ‘16)
  93. Anthony Zeng (COL’23)
  94. Ayesha Naveed (COL’23)
  95. Sofía Negrete Retamales (SFS ‘23)
  96. Roula Hammer (SFS ‘23)
  97. Michael Miller (SFS’22)
  98. Siena Hohne (COL ‘22)
  99. Brandon Wu (SFS ‘24)
  100. Arushi Mehta (COL ‘24)
  101. Ben Gaver (COL ‘22)
  102. Caitlin Baskin (COL ‘23)
  103. Jessica Highland (NHS ‘22)
  104. Emily Hardy (SFS’23)
  105. Rebecca de Heer (COL’23)
  106. Katherine Benjamin (SFS ‘25)
  107. Adam Shaham (SFS ‘22)
  108. Rose Dallimore (SFS ‘22)
  109. Olivia Cooley (COL ‘23)
  110. Sofie Fennell (COL ‘24)
  111. Mackenzie Rabin (SFS ‘24)
  112. Jacob Cohen (SFS ‘23)
  113. Cayden Olsrud (SFS '24)
  114. Claire Beezley (SFS ‘23)
  115. David Edwards (COL ‘24)
  116. Benjamin Oestericher (SFS ‘25)
  117. Courtney Mawet (MSB’24)
  118. Joshua Paige (MSB’24)
  119. Tara Ravishankar (COL’22)
  120. Carlos Rosario (MSB ’23)
  121. Taylor Harvey (NHS ‘’22)
  122. Harper Thomas (SFS ‘22)
  123. Jola Bankole (COL ‘23)
  124. Kelly Harris (COL ‘23)
  125. Nyalee Dias COL'25
  126. Alec Weiker (SFS ‘24)
  127. Kate Reeves (SFS ‘23)
  128. Ishan Datey (SFS ‘25)
  129. Rachel Tao (COL '25)
  130. Abby Gardner (NHS ‘22)
  131. Samantha Baldwin (MPP/MBA ‘24)
  132. Aaron Greenstein (SFS ‘23)
  133. Thalia Zuniga-Davila (COL ‘24)
  134. Daniela Velazquez (COL ‘24)
  135. Maki Woldetsadik (MSB ‘25)
  136. Ben Ward (COL ‘25)
  137. Aditya Manjul (MSB ‘24)
  138. Cody Gardiner (SFS ‘23)
  139. Christopher Walker
  140. Dominic Gordon (SFS ‘23)
  141. Diana Tran (NHS ‘24)
  142. Rachel Li (COL ‘24)
  143. Sarah Silver (SFS ‘25)
  144. Anna Kaganova (SFS ‘23)
  145. Lorinda Ruz (SFS ‘22)
  146. Michael Skora (SFS ‘23)
  147. Tamya Hayes (COL ‘25)
  148. Camille Sheets (SFS ‘22)
  149. Mason Stempel (COL ‘24)
  150. Olivia Yamamoto (SFS ‘24)
  151. Christopher Boose (COL ‘22)
  152. Margaret Lin (COL ‘23)
  153. Sarah Myers (MSB ‘24)
  154. Minoli Ediriweera (COL ‘25)
  155. Omar Rahim (COL ‘24)
  156. Lucas Nieman (SFS ‘24)
  157. Skyler Coffey (COL ‘22)
  158. Margaret Hartigan (COL ‘24)
  159. Cody Slutzky (COL ‘25)
  160. Sabrina Perez (COL ‘24)
  161. Freddy Ludtke (SFS ‘22)
  162. Alanna Pearson (SFS ‘22)
  163. Eva Sofia Esposito (SFS ‘24)
  164. Sarah Edmondson (COL  ‘23)
  165. Chloe Evered (COL ‘24)
  166. Anna Gorman (SFS ‘22)
  167. Jackson Neme (COL ‘24)
  168. Sophia Ceriello (COL ‘24)
  169. Navneet Khaira (COL ‘22)
  170. Cimrun Srivastava (SFS ‘23)
  171. Nikash Harapanahalli (SFS ‘24)
  172. Zahraa Hotait (NHS ‘22)
  173. Hannah Ajibola (NHS ‘24)
  174. Kate Barranco (SFS ‘23)
  175. Luke Henkel (COL ’23)
  176. Tianna Young (SFS ‘25)
  177. Aniya Harris (COL ‘24)
  178. Cale Josephs (SFS ‘23)
  179. Claire Kim (COL ‘25)
  180. Keven Hernandez (SFS '23)
  181. Dakyung Ham (COL ‘22)
  182. Marcella Wiggan (COL ‘23)
  1. Georgetown University Student Association
  2. Black Student Alliance
  3. Georgetown Women Of Color
  4. NAACP Georgetown
  5. Georgetown University’s League of United Latin American Citizens
  6. Student Advocacy Office
  7. Native American Student Council
  8. Georgetown Coalition for Workers’ Rights
  9. International Relations Club
  10. Georgetown Progressive Alliance
  11. Georgetown South Asian Society
  12. Students of Georgetown Inc. (“The Corp”)
  13. H*yas for Choice
  14. Hermanes
  15. GU Pride
  16. Georgetown Chinese Student Alliance
  17. Georgetown University Prison Outreach
  18. Georgetown University College Democrats
  19. Georgetown University Young Democratic Socialists of America
  20. Georgetown Hindu Students Association
  21. Prospect Records
  22. WGTB Georgetown Radio
  23. Georgetown MOSAIC