Juan Salinas II
Campus editor
juan.salinas465@my.tccd.edu

Joe Biden has been in office for over a year, so students reflect on his time in office.

“I honestly would’ve preferred Bernie, and maybe he would’ve followed through with his promises,” TR student Rikki Smith said. 

Smith’s main concern is that Biden hasn’t done anything to implement free college for everyone. On the campaign trail, Biden promised to cancel a minimum of $10,000 of student debt per person, according to a post he made on the online publishing platform Medium. He also proposed two years of free community college in the Build Back Better package but has since considered removing it, according to a press conference held Jan.19 

“Biden gave out N95 masks and didn’t ignore COVID, but he hasn’t addressed student loans,” NW student Katianna McClain said  

McClain hasn’t been actively paying attention to politics but has concerns about the recent events happening between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 

“The Biden term seems to suffer from the same problems Obama’s did,” NW Academic Learning Center tutor Sarah Schrantz said. “Both suffer from having to undo damages done by their predecessor and face enough backlash from opposing parties that it feels like not much has been done or can get done at all.” 

Former President Barack Obama had a supermajority — a majority that is greater than a simple majority — for the first four months of his first term before losing it. The Democrats were able to win back the Senate during the 2020 election, giving them a simple majority.  

“I believe Joe Biden had a very neutral first year,” NW Jordan Adams said. “After Trump, which divided the country, I think he felt like he couldn’t lean far one way or another, causing him to not do much of anything.”  

Adams said they’re glad Biden pulled out of Afghanistan but thought it was executed poorly. 

 “Joe Biden undertook the handling of the pandemic, a rocky economic climate, and a nation divided,” NW student Emmi Maughan said. “He promised ‘brighter days ahead,’ and a handle on the raging virus and throughout the first year of his presidency, some of his promises have been fulfilled, such as the vaccine becoming widely available, the unemployment rate allegedly dropping to 3.9% and rejoining the Paris Agreement to combat climate change.” 

 Biden is currently sitting with a 52.9% disapproval rating, according to polling aggregation site FiveThirtyEight, compared to his 53% approval rating when he was sworn in as president.

Maughan said COVID is the biggest threat to Americans and feels Biden hasn’t used his full capabilities as president on the issue. She is frustrated about his flip-flopping on COVID safety being a federal issue to a state issue. 

“While young voters like myself saw the Biden/Harris administration as a better option, it is still important to call out flaws and disappointments in the leaders we voted into office,” Maughan said. “While there will never be a perfect president, I have hope that things will improve.”