Harvard Students Expected to Protest Education Secretary Betsy DeVos

CAMBRIDGE, MA — More than 500 people indicated they plan to show up at Harvard University on Thursday night to protest U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos when she speaks at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

DeVos, who has been a controversial figure since President Donald Trump appointed her, is scheduled to give the keynote address at the Harvard Institute of Politics-hosted forum, “A Conversation on Empowering Parents."

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The two local activist groups, Stand For All Students, based out of Harvard University and Harvard Can Do Better are leading the protests, mainly on account of her recent decision to rollback Obama-era Title XI protections and guidance on investigating campus sexual assault.

Our Harvard Can Do Better organizer Amelia Goldberg said she thinks students feel betrayed by the Department of Education.

"But they have been wonderful and enthusiastic in supporting this protest. As always, Harvard's community knows what our values are and is prepared to stand up for them," she said. "We're here as students and activists because we refuse to be silenced."

Check out what happened: Hundreds show up to Protest Besty DeVos' Speech At Harvard

Goldberg said protesters are calling out DeVos for "violating survivors' rights and the rights of all students, and we're calling out Harvard for its complicity in this destructive agenda."

"This is a school where ⅓ of women and many men and gender nonconforming students are survivors sexual violence," she added. "Harvard's current silence is unacceptable."

In a Facebook post on Stand for All Students explains:

"We want to show her what Boston thinks of her billionaire agenda to privatize our public schools and roll back civil rights and sexual violence protections for millions of students.We saw just last week that millionaires like Charlie Baker’s K-12 education chair Paul Sagan will do anything to hide their attempts to influence our schools. Last Friday, DeVos’ decision to withdraw Title IX guidance to protect survivors of sexual violence showed that she refuses to put students first. "

DeVos said the old policy had been unfairly skewed against the accused. She is also being criticized for her voucher system to private and charter schools.

The secretary of education has been discussing rolling back civil rights for sexual assault survivors for months, but last Friday the Department of Education took the step of releasing a "Dear Colleague Letter" with new guidance. This new guidance reduces school accountability under Title IX.

"It allows schools to drop from the preponderance of the evidence standard to the clear and convincing standard, which violates Title IX by valuing the respondent’s education more than the alleged survivors'," Goldberg said.

Goldberg contends Harvard has failed to commit to maintaining the preponderance of the evidence standard and other improvements to the policy made under previous Title IX guidance.

Our Harvard Can Do Better, an undergraduate campaign working to end the institutional and cultural enablers of sexual violence at Harvard, announced their protest and opposition to DeVos' policies in an open letter posted in March:

"In light of the Trump administration’s failure to commit to enforcing Title IX rights — Betsy DeVos said in her confirmation hearing that it was “premature” to commit to upholding federal civil rights law — we also call on the University to set an example for its peer institutions. We urge Harvard University to be proactive in implementing the Title IX best practices outlined in the letter."

In addition to the 500 who RSVPed they planned to attend the protest, nearly 2,000 others indicated on the official Facebook invite to the event that they were "interested" in attending. Protesters are set to meet at 5 p.m. at 79 JFK St. in Cambridge.

Check out what happened: Hundreds show up to Protest Besty DeVos' Speech At Harvard

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