about free speech and the free exchange of ideas in his book "why it is ok to speak your mind." sunday, in her new book, "every day is a gift, a memoir," tammy duckworth talks about her life in the u.s. senate. she is interviewed by alana sure. watch book tv this weekend and tune into "in-depth" sunday, may 2, at noon eastern on c-span2. middle and high school students participated in c-span's studentcam competition, telling us what issues the president and congress should address this european all month we are featuring the winners -- our second prize middle school winners are jamie lewis, lily shepard, and noel matthews.

eighth graders from silver spring maryland, where c-span is available through comcast. the winning entry is titled "pervasive," sexual violence is becoming commonplace. >> mike pence was able to break the tie on the nomination of betsy devos to be education secretary. quick some of the most highly debated new rules around sexual assault on campus remain public. >> requiring hearings and cross examinations involving both the accused and the accuser. >> the era of jury by letter is over. >> when title ix was first written in 1972, it was to bring equality to all students regardless of sex. while it helped eliminate gender

bias in activities such as sports and clubs, it did not eliminate the growing rate of sexual misconduct in schools. because of these statistics, former president obama released a dear colleague letter in 2000 -- 2011. >> it was a strong encouragement for institutions to take instances of sexual violence seriously. >> when president trump was elected, he chose betsy devos to be secretary of education. she mutely took action to -- immediately took action, believing her actions would grant equal rights to those accused of sexual assault as well as survivors. >> another area i thought was an improvement, the burden of proof is no longer on the student, on the school -- the school has to prove that person is responsible or not.

>> these changes sparked outrage among parents and students. at the time, 96% of america opposed the new regulation. >> over one hunter 25,000 comments were submitted, and we found the majority of them were on our side -- we did not want to see these changes happen because we knew that fundamentally the changes that were proposed were going to be harmful to survivors as well as to -- at large. >> devos tabled the idea until a later date. three years after the law was proposed, coronavirus struck. the law went into effect in august, 2020. >> rule changes happening during the middle of the global pandemic -- there just hasn't been enough guidance really from the department of guidance from the department of education. they are supposed to protect

students during covid. >> democratic legislators were devastated, 17 states sued. the lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge. dissenters including vice president-elect kamala harris urged her to and the harmful progress -- process and draft the rule in accord with title ix. title ix advocates have been vocal about their opinions. and have staged marches and rallies to protest this. universities have come under fire for perpetrating rate culture have been against this, many of them do not have money or resources to pay for this. >> the new regulations turn colleges and universities into courtrooms.

it requires colleges and universities to set up a judicial apparatus that they are not prepared for. >> in addition to cross examinations, they provided a narrow definition of sexual assault. >> for students to report sexual harassment under title ix, he needs to be bad, happened multiple times and deny your access to education. >> the regulations are a complete setback. they have stripped away the rights, protections without consideration for the current pandemic. >> the regulations limit where the assault can take place and who they can report the assault to. investigations were halted due to covid. some of the cases were thrown out. what do you think president-elect biden should do? >> the definition of sexual

harassment needs to be --, it should be eliminated or have achievable objectives. >> our hope needs to be that -- to ensure that any student going through the misconduct process has failed rights and process. >> all winning entries are available online at studentcam.org. ♪ >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government, created by america's cable television companies in 1979. today we are about to buy these companies who provide c-span2 viewers as a public