ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The community college campus where Dr. Jill Biden teaches is just nine miles southwest of the White House.
But it’s one of the few places in the Washington, D.C., area where the rapidly unfolding crisis over President Biden’s reelection isn’t a talking point: More than 15 students interviewed by The Washington Post this week had never heard of it.
Some students who know her on the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) campus as “Dr. B,” as many call her, were unaware that she was the first lady and even married to the president.
Most of the staff and administrators The Post spoke to declined to comment, saying they had been told by Nova officials not to speak to reporters. Only one staff member, who declined to be named, spoke about Jill, who has taught English at the school since 2009.
“She comes here two or three times a week with her entourage and has everyone call her ‘Doctor,'” he said, referring to the Secret Service agent accompanying her.
“I don’t know her personally, but it’s a bit of a joke. Most of the teachers here don’t care about being called Doctor.”
First Lady Jill Biden has been famously referred to as “Dr. Jill Biden” since earning her Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) from the University of Delaware in 2007.
Her dissertation was on community colleges. “Student Retention in Community Colleges: Meeting Student Needs.”
“I don’t get involved in politics, I don’t watch the news,” a 20-year-old Afghan student, nearly completely veiled, told The Post as she walked along a paved sidewalk to the campus store. “I know Dr. B.; I was on my way to her class.”
Others who know Jill Biden as first lady were unaware that after his disastrous debate loss last week to Donald Trump, there has been controversy over her 81-year-old husband’s cognitive ability and whether he’s capable of governing for the next four years.
“He might have dementia,” one of two young American-born male students leaving campus for the day said when approached by a Washington Post reporter and asked about the controversy surrounding the president. “I feel so sorry for him. Is that true? It’s so sad. I’d heard about the debates, but I didn’t know about this.”
Two U.S.-born students playing ping pong outside the student center directly across from Jill Biden’s classroom said they were first-year students and had no idea the first lady taught at their school.
Only one student, Chris Braden, agreed to have his name used and said he didn’t want to say anything bad about Jill Biden or her husband, “because I might be the biggest Trump hater in the world. I just wish there was a better candidate.”
In fairness, Jill Biden herself trend Many of the students at NOVA’s Alexandria campus this month are recent immigrants who aren’t necessarily familiar with the nuances of American politics, she said, while others are older women looking to rejoin the workforce.
“Whatever I give to my kids, it has to be short,” she told Vogue, “because many of them go to work as soon as they finish my classes. They work until eight o’clock and then have to do their homework. And they may also have to take care of their kids or their parents.”
She also told Vogue that she often assigns articles instead of books because books are expensive, but she likes to assign her students Trevor Noah’s 2019 memoir, “Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood.”
NOVA accepts 100 percent of its applicants, and its Alexandria campus has 14,000 students, including some immigrants from Afghanistan.
As a sanctuary city, Alexandria has just one public high school, which serves many Afghan refugees, some of whom attend NOVA.
A NOVA spokesperson had not commented to The Washington Post by press time, and a representative for Jill Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dr. Biden taught in May but does not appear to be on the summer teaching schedule and received a rating of 4.5 out of 5. “Rate My Professor” site.
Many critics praise her, a few say she’s not very organized, but the majority agree that she’s a tough grader.
“Can I say something mean?” asked a US-born student who asked not to be named but had only taken one class with her. “She’s kind of mean. I only had one class with her. I didn’t really like her. She was impossible to please.”
Prior to coming to NOVA, Jill Biden was a professor at Delaware Technical Community College for 15 years and a high school teacher before that.
Jill Biden received a fair amount of criticism for claiming the title “Dr.” after her husband was elected president in November 2020. Interestingly, She appeared on the cover of Vogue for the first time in June 2021.the title was featured on the cover. It is not featured on the cover of this month’s issue.
“Anyone who insists on being called ‘Doctor’ because they have an academic doctorate, rather than because they are a medical doctor, is clearly suffering from an inferiority complex,” Kyle Smith says. Written in National Review December 2020.
“Really accomplished PhD holders don’t force you to call them ‘Dr.’, so you’ll never hear names like ‘Dr. Paul Krugman’ or ‘Dr. George Will.’ No Yale professor I know, even those well-known in their fields, insisted on the title, and most would probably scoff if someone called them ‘Dr.'”
In a 2021 Washington Post profile Jill Biden’s book also features glowing reviews from her former students.
“She never mentioned being Jill Biden,” said Juliet Rosso, who taught Biden as an English professor in 2017. “She was a genuine, humble person.”
“She’s deeply compassionate. She’s incredibly engaging, challenging and kind,” Michaela Stack told the paper about Biden.
