On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second time, ending former President Joe Biden’s term in office. The Biden administration made several impacts on federal policy, including passing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and education-related policies.
The Biden administration also updated Title IX update — which went into effect on Aug. 1, 2024 — eliminated mandated live hearings for victims of sexual assault and reinforced protections against discrimination for LGBTQ+ students. According to Rockefeller Center for Public Policy executive director and government professor Anna Mahoney, the policy “broadened” the understanding of “gender equity” to include transgender students.
On Jan. 9, however, Eastern District of Kentucky Court Chief Judge Danny Reeves struck down the new Title IX regulations, ruling in favor of states Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia and the commonwealths of Kentucky and Virginia.
“The Trump administration has signaled that those [Title IX] protections were something that they were very concerned about and that they would likely have rescinded regardless of the court outcome,” Mahoney said.
Government professor Russell Muirhead said the Biden administration had “great ambitions” regarding Title IX legislation and student loan debt that ultimately led to “really big disappointments.”
“Biden aimed to forgive a great deal of debt that people have taken on in the form of student loans, and he succeeded to an extent,” Muirhead said. “[But] his most ambitious efforts to do that were blocked by the courts.”
Muirhead explained that some courts blocked Biden’s loan forgiveness actions because they “stretch[ed] the powers” of executive orders.
In the last week of his presidency, Biden issued a final round of student loan relief which forgave $600 million in student loan debt, according to the U.S. Department of Education website.
Muirhead noted that Biden eliminated a “great deal of debt” for certain categories of borrowers, including those who had worked in the public sector for more than a decade and people with disabilities.
Vice-president of the Dartmouth Conservatives Jack Coleman ’26 said he considers Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan an “overstep” of his executive powers.
“I'm not a big fan of a lot of what he's done,” Coleman said. “I believe that with both Trump and with Biden we’ve had too many violations of norms in the way that the presidency is supposed to operate.”
Coleman added that the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was a “step in the right direction.” The act enforces mandated background checks needed for those under the age of 21 who wish to purchase a firearm, especially looking into the purchaser’s juvenile criminal or mental health history.
“I think that gun control bill that he did get passed, as mild as it was, I think that was a win, and I think that's something that I can, as a conservative, just say that I support and commend,” Coleman said.
Dartmouth Democrats president Prescott Herzog ’25 — who worked on the White House’s Council of Environmental Quality during Biden’s term — said Biden’s administration led to the creation of the “largest climate investment” in American history. He added that the administration created the Inflation Reduction Act, which reduced drug prices and capped the costs of drugs on Medicare.
“Biden’s experience in the Senate, and knowing how to get things through Congress in a bipartisan fashion — particularly when it comes to the Inflation Reduction Act and its impacts on climate — I think is the most consequential [trait],” Herzog said.
Herzog added that he believes the administration did what it could to “restore and ensure that foreign policy is working for the middle class.” However, some factors were “out of [their] control,” such as the House of Representatives flipping over to Republicans in 2022, he said.
Muirhead said people today feel as if “the government is basically broken,” and as if there is a need for a “profound change” to the status quo.
“The lasting legacy [of the Biden administration] is the desire to make government work with respect to building out an infrastructure that serves the country over the next 100 years,” Muirhead said.
Mahoney added that Biden’s authenticity is representative of something that is “really rare.”
“[Biden] displayed [his authenticity] many times in sharing his personal grief with Americans who, like himself, had lost their spouses or their children,” Mahoney said. “He’s experienced a lot of loss in his life, and rather than become paralyzed or overwhelmed by that, he really used it as a point of connection to really connect with Americans in a really emotional and authentic way.”
William Parocai ’27 said he and his friends spoke about how the Biden administration would be remembered over dinner and disagreed.
“I said that Biden will eventually be forgotten as a president and [my friend] disagreed with me,” Parocai said. “He said that Biden will be remembered as a good president.”
Parocai said the Biden administration will come to be “forgotten” because Trump “always will be memorable” due to his media presence, while Obama will be memorable for his politics and being the first Black president.
“I think Biden could face some challenges in being remembered and that his legacy will be diminished because of the people that were President around him,” Parocai said.
Mahoney said the administration leaves behind a “signal” of a nation ready for change. She explained that Biden’s endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris is an important signal to the country that it is “ready for more women to lead.”
Jack Coleman ’26 is a member of The Dartmouth's podcast team. He was not involved in the writing or editing of this story.
