Former vice president Joe Biden on Friday urged activists to demand college authorities “step up” to uphold protections for sexual assault survivors, a day after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced she would change the way schools investigate and resolve complaints of sexual violence on campus.
“This administration does not speak for the American people on this issue,” Biden said on a call, according to BuzzFeed News.
He urged activists to “demand — of your college president, your provost, your deans — demand that they step up.”
“I know many of you are survivors, I know how you might feel betrayed today,” Biden said, according to the report. “Your government’s let you down. Well, I want you to know that not only I stand with you but the majority of the American people stand with you. I believe you.”
Former President Barack Obama’s administration established rules in 2011 to guide how colleges enforce Title IX, a federal law prohibiting gender-based discrimination in education, in cases of sexual assault.
DeVos on Thursday announced that she would seek feedback from the public and universities to develop new rules for the way colleges enforce the federal law.