This previously ran in our February 2022 print issue.

It has been little over a year since President Joseph Robinette Biden first took office after the historic election of 2020, having beat former president Donald Trump by 74 electoral votes and 4.4% of the popular vote. More than 81 million votes were cast for Biden, the most for any presidential candidate ever, according to CBS News.  

Biden has had to deal with many issues since taking office, including undoing policies of the previous administration, climate change, foreign policy, and more recently, the Colleyville synagogue hostage crisis in Texas.  

Besides all of these, the Biden administration has grappled with the issue at the forefront of the minds of many: COVID-19. According to NPR, about 63% of America is vaccinated, compared to 0.6% on Jan. 19, 2021, the last full day of the Trump administration.  

Emmaus High school students have expressed varied reactions to Biden’s first year in office.

When asked her opinion about Biden’s presidency so far, a student who wishes to remain anonymous said, “the Biden administration is working hard to solve the issue of climate change.” 

Freshman William Zheng was relatively impassionate about Biden’s first year in office.

“I mean, he’s not doing anything bad right now, [but] that doesn’t mean he’s doing anything good right now,” he said.

Sydne Clarke, a senior who is the vice president of Young Democrats and the co-president of S.O.A.R. (Students Organizing Against Racism), has a generally positive opinion on Biden and his policies so far.  

“From what I’ve seen, I think he’s been handling at least the Coronavirus pretty efficiently,” Clarke said.

Clarke added that she thought the pandemic was being handled better under this administration than the previous one.  

Clarke also approved of the new COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act (which was aimed at stopping anti-Asian hate crimes), but at the same time believed that the Biden administration should also be working harder to prevent hate crimes against African Americans.

However, Biden’s first year was not without its criticisms.  

Senior Amanda Blagbrough, President of the Young Republicans Club, thinks that Biden has “let everyone down on both sides of the aisle, both Republicans and Democrats.”  

“[I] would prefer Trump because I believe Trump had better, if not the same policies, but I think most of what Biden did was smack-talk Trump and then change next to nothing but try to claim that he did better,” Blagbrough said when asked if she preferred Trump or Biden.

Blagbrough added that Biden is “deteriorating as a person” and that nothing he has accomplished over the course of his administration so far “has been productive or helpful.”

She went on to call for Biden to resign, saying that “It would be smart for [Biden] to let someone take up the position [of president] that’s quicker on their feet.”

Although it is true that Biden has not lived up to all his promises as of now, he still has three more years to fulfill them.