In an effort to implement federal rules to better guide colleges in the manner in which they are handling campus sexual assault, President Joe Biden plans on making some changes to Title IX. This is the federal law that forbids sex discrimination in education. Upon review by the Department of Education, Biden is making changes to rules the Trump Administration placed around Title IX. The President’s direction to the agency was that they “consider suspending, revising, or rescinding” all policies that failed to protect students. Biden’s Title IX changes are essentially his first step to repealing the regulations and returning to the one-sided approach to Title IX previously seen in the Obama-Biden Administration. “The policy of this administration is that every individual, every student is entitled to a fair education–free of sexual violence–and that people all involved have access to a fair process,” Jennifer Klein, co-chairman and executive director of the Gender Policy Council, said at a White House briefing.
Under the Biden-Harris Administration, these orders were issued on International Women’s Day, a day that celebrates the various achievements of women.
Despite school administrations and due process activists tactically criticizing such an important decision, many people still feel that it was about time for Title IX to be reformed. College women throughout the United State are letting out sighs of relief, and even higher note, students who decide to come forward and report sexual assault will not have the odds stacked against them. Sexual assault on college campuses is a growing issue that Biden has made a conscious decision to target.
During the 2020 Presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised that he would put an immediate end to on-campus sexual assault rules that were finalized the previous year by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and he is working tirelessly to do just that. As a college woman who has witnessed just how lightly sexual assault was being taken on campuses, I am finally able to make out a light at the end of the tunnel.