Students at Georgetown University have overwhelmingly voted to create a reparations fund for the descendants of slaves once sold by the university. The students agreed to pay a fee of $27.20 each semester in honor of the 272 people sold by the school in 1838. Georgetown freshman Nile Blass helped push the measure.

Nile Blass: “I want everyone here to know that we cannot remove the historical pre-context to our current context. The direct quality of life of these individuals, who were used as objects and equipment for our university, can be directly tied to the decisions that our Georgetown faculty of the time created.”