I am a freshman in college and in the months leading up to my departure from home the majority of my family members have been telling me to “stay safe” and to not “walk around campus by myself”. While I appreciated their advice, I didn’t really take it that seriously. I was too focused on decorated my dorm, joining clubs and trying to keep a decent GPA.

However, when Department of Education announcement a few days ago that they were planning to rewrite a key Title IX guidance which works to address and prevent sexual assault in schools I was reminded of my families' words and their concern.

The current secretary of education believes that the Obama administration overstepped their power in protecting the student survivors of sexual assault to the detriment of the accused student. However, for many, the Obama era policy that specifically stated: “sexual harassment of students, which includes acts of sexual violence, is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX” was a step in the right direction to opening up a conversation about rape culture on college campuses. While the Obama administration policies are not the perfect solution to addressing campus rape they were at least a step forward.

They were an administrations attempt to deal with something which for so long was swept under the rug and ignored. DeVos’s solution is to allow colleges to once again ignore the national epidemic of rape culture and ignore the voices of rape and sexual assault victims.

Former Vice President, Joe Biden, even said that the Secretary of Education’s plan for dealing with campus rape is a “step in the wrong direction.” We are still waiting to see what DeVos will do with campus rape issues because she has not made clear how they will change the current policy but here’s hoping that maybe it’ll get changed for the better and not the worst.