Votes elect more than the candidate

As voters, we are urged to consider all factors that contribute to a presidential candidate as a whole. From policy to political history, to party affiliation, there are a plethora of variables that all intersect to create the entirety of a candidate. This intricate set of collective variables is stark in contrast to the simplicity of a pair of names on a ballot.

We cannot be misled into believing that we are voting solely for a candidate and their running mate, we are voting for thousands. The President of the United States is responsible for the appointments of approximately four thousand positions that serve to directly impact the United States government, and its people. These appointed positions range from Supreme Court Justices to White House aides. Some positions require senate hearings for a formal appointment, while some come directly from whoever holds the office of the presidency at a given time. Officials in these positions in turn execute decisions that directly impact the direction of the nation as a whole.

In a perfect world, the four thousand appointments can be known. However, knowing and understanding the responsibilities and intents of each of these positions is not a realistic ask of voters. With that being said, as college students, I urge you to intentionally consider the nominee’s agendas pertaining to Title IX under the Department of Education and how it would impact our lives on campus.

In 2011, in the midst of President Obama’s first term, the U.S. Department of Education and its Office for Civil Rights released a memo proposing changes in policy under Title IX called the “Dear Colleague Letter.” The letter was released with the intention to create significant change under Title IX, leading to new mandated policy surrounding the sexual violence reporting process on all college campuses receiving federal funding, including CSB/ SJU. The Dear Colleague Letter ensured that all colleges provide grievance procedure in the event of sexual violence being reported; it ensured that the school is prompt in its adjudications, both parties were able to provide witnesses and the school’s procedure uses preponderance of the evidence to resolve grievances, among other mandated regulations in procedure.

These adjustments stayed in place under Title IX up until August of 2020, when Trump’s Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, instituted revisions to Title IX that had been drafted since 2017. With DeVos’ amendments to regulations, federally funded institutions are no longer mandated to uphold the procedure outlaid in Dear Colleague Letter. Specifically, DeVos’ amendment narrows the definition of sexual violence, causing less grievances to be valid in the eyes of institution’s processes, as well as allowing for cross-examination from the accused against the survivor in the grievance process.

DeVos rationalizes these amendments by stating, “Too many students have lost access to their education because their school inadequately responded when a student filed a complaint of sexual harassment or sexual assault.” DeVos’ Title IX amendment is rightly criticized for its enabling of cultures that continue to allow sexual violence to persist in college environments.

In response to DeVos’ amendments, the Biden-Harris campaign vows for a quick end to DeVos’ mark on Title IX. As college students, and as voters, we should vote for a candidate willing to appoint a Secretary of Education that will stand up for survivors of sexual violence, not degrade them through narrow definitions and cross-examinations from their assaulters. These specific examples of an appointed official impacting policy is not isolated, appointees’ impact exists in each of our lives each day. Vote for a candidate that is cable of appointing competent leaders. Vote for Joe Biden.