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Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A Brown Student Went Full DOGE Over How His $93,000 Tuition Is Spent. The Fallout Was Predictable—and Wrong.
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Brown University sophomore Alex Shieh had a good idea. Inspired by Elon Musk's efforts to reduce supposed staffing inefficiencies in the federal government, Shieh wondered if there were a way to quantify and combat an analogous trend at his university. So with the help of A.I. and a number of publicly available databases, he compiled a list of the university's nearly 4,000 non-faculty employees, grouped them by category, and mocked up working job descriptions for each. Then he wrote emails to all of them, asking them to describe their value to the university. Shieh hoped the project would be the basis for a reporting project that would anchor the first few issues of the Brown Spectator, a defunct conservative student newspaper he and two classmates hoped to relaunch. Shieh's project had the erstwhile DOGE chief's fingerprints all over it, but there's one big difference between the two men: Musk will be able to start drawing on Social Security (if, of course, it's still solvent) in under a decade, while Shieh can't yet legally drink. Shieh's idea, even if it did have roots in our raging national culture wars, was quite ambitious, strong work for a young man with less than half of a degree under his belt. The authorities at Brown, however, didn't see it that way. Upon getting wind of the provocative email blast, they launched a conduct-code investigation and accused Shieh and his partners of trademark violations. And although all charges were eventually dropped, the university's intent was clear: They came to bury Shieh, not to praise him. They couldn't have been more wrong to do so. And it's not just Republicans who think so. I've been teaching sophomores for over a decade and a half, and while Shieh's project is certainly undergraduate work, it's of a particularly high caliber. It is timely, relevant, and enterprising, and it asks a pressing research question. Brown shouldn't have met him with disciplinary threats. Instead, the university should have offered him the best resources an elite institution can provide: academic mentorship and access to top-flight faculty research. If I'd had the opportunity to work with Mr. Shieh, I would have begun by praising him for identifying and focusing on a pressing problem for American higher education in a time of rising tuition costs: administrative bloat. According to a report by the Progressive Policy Institute's Paul Weinstein Jr., non-faculty hiring has exploded over the past 50 years, and today, at the nation's top 50 universities, there is on average 1 non-faculty employee for every 4 students. This trend is particularly acute at Brown, where the ratio nears 1 to 3. But then I would challenge this student to reconsider his methodology—and to research whether Musk's approach is advisable. I would remind him that Musk's efforts to trim the fat at Twitter probably contributed to a giant drop in that company's valuation. And I would add that some experts believe that DOGE's cuts to the federal workforce may actually end up costing taxpayers money. (I would also admit that either initiative might bear fruit in the longer term.) I would then leverage the interdisciplinary connections available at a large research institution, sending Shieh to colleagues in the business school to learn about other approaches to considering and enacting substantial layoffs. If Shieh and his partners persisted, I would have sent them to professors in sociology and communications to figure out best practices for designing a survey that didn't inspire one recipient to respond, 'Fuck off.' (His email, which only garnered 20 responses, allegedly included the too-pert question 'What do you do all day?') If he wanted, in good faith, to get results, he should have recognized that he was operating inside a highly polarized, charged environment, sending a survey to adults who pay their bills with these jobs, and modulated his approach accordingly—something the university's many experts in rhetoric could have helped him see. As a onetime writing instructor, I would also advise him that it is misleading to refer to that profane recipient as an 'administrator [at] Brown' in Congressional testimony, when he is really a relatively low-level functionary in the events planning office. And by the way, I would have done all these things not because I agree with Shieh. Indeed, I don't think I do. Rather, I would have supported him because he had a serious academic question and the drive to think it through as part of an ambitious, time-intensive project. The fact that Brown University responded so aggressively only lends ammunition to those on the right who believe—often correctly—that American academia is hostile to conservative viewpoints. (This despite the fact that, as Shieh himself said, 'It's not inherently conservative to want to make education more affordable.') Now, perhaps Brown would have done some of these things had they been given ample notice of Shieh's plans, or if Shieh had registered the Spectator with the university in advance. As it was, it seems they were blindsided, and ended up reacting, rather than acting. So now, instead of boasting about high-profile conservative-leaning student research, they're trying to put out a political firestorm and opening themselves to attack at a moment when Elon Musk's old boss is gunning for the Ivy Leagues.
The Star
08-06-2025
- Politics
- The Star
A student at Brown University channelled Elon Musk. Then he got in trouble
Thousands of administrative employees at Brown University woke up this spring to an email with pointed Elon Musk-like questions about their job responsibilities. Please describe your role, it asked. What tasks have you performed in the past week? How would Brown students be affected if your job didn't exist? The March 18 email was from a sophomore, Alex Shieh, who explained that the responses would be included in a story for The Brown Spectator , a new, as yet unpublished conservative newspaper on campus. His questions were undoubtedly sensitive for elite universities like Brown, where the cost of tuition, housing and other fees has risen to US$93,000 (RM 394,785) . Critics, including President Donald Trump, accuse the schools of padding their budgets with redundant layers of deans and associate deans, bloated diversity programs and niche academic divisions. Many recipients of the email, including those in the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, were not amused – no doubt aware that Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency was ripping like a hacksaw through the federal bureaucracy, had asked government employees similar kinds of questions. Two days later, Brown notified Shieh that he was under investigation for possible violations of the university's code of student conduct, including its prohibitions on invasion of privacy, misrepresentation and emotional or psychological harm. With that, his case – and that of two Spectator students who were later placed under investigation – became the latest flashpoint in the free speech wars on American college campuses. Brown eventually cleared all three students of wrongdoing. But their case is yet another example of how universities continue to struggle with protecting the rights of students to express themselves on campus, after years of trying to adjudicate just when political expression tips into harassment. The story quickly became a cause on the right – more evidence, conservatives said, that higher education is stacked against them and needs the government to step in to force reform. Fox News, Charlie Kirk and The New York Post ran with stories about what they saw as this new affront. And on Wednesday, Shieh testified before a House committee investigating high tuition costs. Brown was already under political pressure. The Trump administration is threatening to block US$510mil (RM2.16bil) in federal contracts and grants for the Providence, Rhode Island, university – part of a campaign to hold universities accountable for tolerating pro-Palestinian activism that many Jewish students and faculty saw as antisemitic. A spokesperson for Brown said that the university followed a standard procedure for students accused of conduct violations, and that this case was no different. 'Brown proceeded in complete accordance with free expression guarantees and appropriate procedural safeguards under University policies and applicable law,' Brian Clark, the spokesperson, said. Universities are generally able to impose restrictions on some speech in the name of fostering respect and tolerance. But 'just because the school can regulate something generally doesn't mean they should – or that they can weaponise those regulations against a certain speaker,' said Dominic Coletti, of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free-speech advocacy group that intervened in Shieh's case and urged Brown to drop its investigation. Shieh, a computer science-economics major, has been something of a campus gadfly, known as 'the Fox News kid' for his involvement in conservative politics and occasional national media appearances. Early in the semester, he and about a dozen other students were discussing the relaunch of The Brown Spectator , which had been defunct for a decade. They agreed to do an article on the increase in administrative positions at the university, an issue throughout academia that critics say illustrates how colleges have strayed from their core educational functions. Then in February, when Musk demanded that federal workers justify their jobs or risk termination, Shieh borrowed the idea. First, he created a database that listed all 3,800 staff and administrative positions at Brown and categorised them based on an artificial intelligence-powered analysis of the work each position entailed. Then, when he sent the email on March 18, Shieh included a link to his website along with the questions about job responsibilities. He also asked employees to comment on his characterisations of their work, since not all of them were flattering. Shieh said that he was trying to make a universal point about the cost of higher education. 'It's not inherently conservative to want to make education more affordable,' he said. The vast majority of the people who received the email ignored it. Some complained to the university. A few replies seemed to forget the Queen's English. But several employees described the value of their jobs: among them, a teaching assistant with 95 students; a financial coordinator who handles office expenses; an actor who role-plays a sick patient for medical students. Brown says its administrative staff of 3,800 has expanded to support a growing number of students and projects it undertakes as a top research university. Between 2014 and 2024, undergraduate enrollment rose by 18%, and graduate student enrollment by 59%. At first, Shieh's email caused some confusion because The Spectator was not known on campus. To ensure their independence, the students said they did not register with the university, nor were they required to. (They did register with the state of Rhode Island, where Brown is located, as a nonprofit corporation in February.) The university had concerns that Shieh, who is listed in public filings as the publisher of The Spectator, had falsely presented himself as a reporter and had improperly accessed university data systems containing staff information, most of which was publicly available. Some employees took umbrage with having their jobs described as wasteful and insignificant. After some discussions with Shieh and representatives from FIRE, Brown decided to drop the misrepresentation charge. But the university also added a new allegation: trademark infringement. It accused Shieh of using the university's name in the Spectator's title without permission. After his colleagues at The Brown Spectator published an editorial arguing that a vibrant campus depended on 'the freedom to ask hard questions, publish unpopular opinions, and hold powerful institutions to account' – hardly a controversial position –the university notified two of them that they could face discipline for a trademark violation as well. Benjamin Marcus, editor-in-chief of The Spectator , said that before publishing its editorial, he and the managing editor joked, 'There's no way they're going to charge us.' Both students soon learned their confidence was misplaced. Even so, Marcus said that his disciplinary experience felt like a relief compared with his experience on campus as an Orthodox Jew and supporter of Israel. Brown, unlike many other schools, called in the police relatively early when student protesters occupied university property, resulting in dozens of arrests. But some students felt that the university had allowed a hostile atmosphere toward Jews to take root. 'I got heckled, spit at, flipped off,' Marcus said. 'It was very rough.' To then face disciplinary action from the university – with finals approaching – was confusing, he said. 'I don't want to pick a fight with the university,' said Marcus, who is also president of the College Republicans. 'I just want the paper to be alive and well.' Last week, the university released a formal values statement that its president said was intended to articulate in 'plain, uncomplicated terms' a commitment to learning 'without interference or censorship.' For the first time, Brown also adopted a formal policy to forgo any public statements 'on topics unrelated to its mission.' Glenn C. Loury, an economics professor at Brown known for his contrarian views, said that it was encouraging to see the campus, and higher education in general, make what he considered small commitments to free speech. Still, he said, 'I don't expect universities to be remade overnight.' In the meantime, he suggested that Brown may have inadvertently lifted the prospects for both Shieh and The Spectator . 'He seems to be having a good time,' Loury said of Shieh, whom he has taught and found to be smart, driven and self-aware. 'Going after these kids wasn't the wisest move.' After a 10-year hiatus, the first issues of The Brown Spectator started appearing on campus last month – 700 copies, according to Marcus. Before distributing them, he said, The Spectator notified the university. – © 2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Brown student accuses school of waste at Congressional hearing
WASHINGTON (WPRI) — Speaking before a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee, Brown University student Alex Shieh testified about his experience challenging his school as Republican lawmakers consider whether Ivy Leagues are violating antitrust laws. 'This committee has a responsibility not just to investigate Ivy League antitrust violations, but to reclaim the American Dream from those who have twisted it into a racket,' Shieh said. Shieh made national headlines when Brown launched a disciplinary investigation after he sent more than 3,000 emails to university staff, asking them to explain their jobs. He said the emails were for a Brown Spectator story investigating wasteful spending. During Wednesday's hearing, Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio asked Shieh what the school accused him of doing wrong. 'First, it was emotional, psychological harm, invasion of privacy and misrepresentation,' Shieh said. 'Asking someone how they spend your money is emotional harm?' Jordan asked. Shieh said the school dropped its charges after a disciplinary hearing last month. LOCAL COVERAGE: Brown student won't face discipline for DOGE-like email to administrators In a two-page email to 12 News, a spokesperson for Brown disputed several claims Republican lawmakers made about the school's finances during the hearing. The school also pushed back on Shieh's comments. 'We've continued to see inaccuracies reported publicly by the student testifying today about a related disciplinary process,' spokesperson Brian Clark wrote regarding Shieh. In an interview with 12 News after the hearing, Shieh said this issue is now much larger than him, and that he hopes lawmakers will get universities to cut down on wasteful spending. 'I'm glad that Congressman Jordan invited me to testify today,' he said. 'And I guess I'm grateful for all lawmakers there, both parties, who seem to be taking this issue of Ivy League antitrust violations very seriously.' But some Democrats on the subcommittee warn that the issue of college costs is being used by Republicans to go after universities. 'All institutions of higher learning are under attack?' Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., asked Julie Margetta Morgan, a higher education expert invited to testify in front of the committee. 'That's right,' Margetta Morgan said. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
USA Today
04-06-2025
- Business
- USA Today
A student sent DOGE-style emails to Brown administrators. Congress gave him a spotlight.
A student sent DOGE-style emails to Brown administrators. Congress gave him a spotlight. 'Instead of answering, Brown's response was retaliation,' rising junior Alex Shieh told lawmakers during a congressional hearing. Show Caption Hide Caption Is Alex Shieh Brown University's version of Elon Musk? What he has to say Shieh is facing potential discipline after asking Brown staffers about their jobs. WASHINGTON – Congressional Republicans on June 4 rallied to the defense of a Brown University student who was investigated by the Ivy League school after he sent administrators DOGE-style emails asking them to justify their jobs. During a congressional hearing, GOP lawmakers lauded the rising junior, Alex Shieh, for shedding light on what they viewed as administrative bloat at prestigious colleges. Democrats, meanwhile, criticized their counterparts for complaining about college costs while voicing support for President Donald Trump's major domestic policy bill, which would make federal financial aid less available for many students across higher education. Though Shieh was ultimately cleared of student conduct violation charges, his story grabbed national attention. It also underscored widespread debates about free speech on campuses beyond Brown and the high sticker prices of degrees at some universities. The primary focus of the congressional hearing was to discuss whether some of the country's most selective colleges have violated antitrust laws in their financial aid policies. Accusations of malfeasance by financial aid offices have prompted major litigation in recent years, including a 2022 price-fixing lawsuit against more than a dozen prominent schools, including Brown. After a protracted court fight, the Rhode Island university settled with a group of students for nearly $20 million in July 2024. (The school continues to deny any wrongdoing.) Read more: 'Please Admit': Rampant donor preferences alleged in college financial aid lawsuit In February, after Trump regained the White House, he brought in tech billionaire Elon Musk to helm the Department of Government Efficiency. Shock spread through the federal workforce when DOGE abruptly asked nearly every agency employee to provide a list of five things they'd accomplished over the prior week. At the time, Musk warned that those who didn't respond would be "furthering their career elsewhere." In March, Shieh took a page out of Musk's book. As part of an investigation for the Brown Spectator, a conservative and libertarian school publication, he sent similar questions to nearly 4,000 Brown administrators. According to Shieh's website, he asked them to explain their roles, what tasks they had performed over the prior week and how Brown students would be impacted if their positions were eliminated. "Some of them answered, and the ones who answered seemed to have pretty useful jobs," Shieh told lawmakers on June 4. "I guess we can infer that the ones who didn't have jobs that are not so important." In early April, the university launched a preliminary student conduct review of Shieh for improperly using data accessed through a school platform. He was cleared a month later of facing any disciplinary action. In the months since, Shieh's case became a rallying cry for Republicans, who have doubled down on their criticism of Ivy League universities in recent months, as Trump slashed billions in federal funding for schools like Brown, Harvard and Columbia. "Mr. Shieh, thank you for stepping forward and letting the country know what's going on at these elite universities," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said at the hearing on Capitol Hill. Brian Clark, a Brown spokesperson, said in a statement that the university has grown its workforce responsibly over time. Its staff members are vital to the school's work, including medical care and scientific research, he said. "While the national conversation about higher education finances and costs is important, it's regrettable that a witness in today's hearing offered so many misrepresentations about Brown's students, employees and efforts to provide an exceptional educational experience and conduct high-impact research," he said. Democrats, including Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, echoed that criticism during the hearing. "This is much ado about nothing," he said. Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@ Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Brown student exposing Ivy League bloat gives House testimony, urges Congress to ‘mandate transparency'
EXCLUSIVE - Brown University student Alex Shieh, who was recently cleared of wrongdoing after he sent campus employees a DOGE-like email, is testifying Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee on rising costs at elite universities. "Brown University, like many of its Ivy League peers, presents itself as a selective meritocratic institution," reads Shieh's testimony, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital. "But according to data from The New York Times, the median family income of Brown students is over $200,000 — the highest among Ivy League universities," his prepared statement continues. "Forty-seven percent of the student body comes from the top 5% of earners in the U.S. A study by Brown University economist John Friedman confirms that low and middle-income students remain significantly underrepresented at selective colleges including Brown, even after controlling for academic qualifications." Brown University In Gop Crosshairs After Student's Doge-like Email Kicks Off Frenzy Shieh, a rising junior who was cleared of wrongdoing by the university on May 14, had previously angered school officials by sending a DOGE-like email to non-faculty employees identifying himself as a journalist for The Brown Spectator and asking them what they do all day to try to determine why the school's tuition has gotten so expensive. The Brown Spectator, a right-leaning publication which has a board of three people, including Shieh, was revived this year after it ceased publication in 2014. Read On The Fox News App The board members faced a disciplinary hearing on May 7 over allegations that they violated Brown University's name, licensing and trademark policies. Shieh and the Spectator faced scrutiny from the university after Shieh began investigating positions he deemed redundant after reviewing 3,805 non-faculty employees who worked at Brown and emailing them to ask, "What do you do all day?" "As an investigative reporter for The Brown Spectator, I launched Bloat@Brown, a website that used AI to analyze administrative staff roles and necessity, and a website that performed similar analysis on Columbia University, Cornell University, and the University of Pennsylvania," Shieh said in his prepared remarks. "I emailed each administrator at Brown with a request for comment," Shieh added. "Only 20 responded. One… replied with 'F--k off.' Soon after, the university instructed employees not to respond, and the site was hacked. My social security number was leaked. Associate Dean Kirsten Wolfe initiated a disciplinary process against me, first under charges of 'emotional/psychological harm,' 'misrepresentation,' 'invasion of privacy,' and later for alleged technology policy and alleged trademark policy violations." Shieh sent a follow-up email to Brown administrators on May 27, which Shieh previously told Fox News Digital was "one last opportunity to justify their roles." Ivy League Student Accused Of Causing 'Emotional Harm' To Non-faculty Staff For Sending Doge-like Email In his prepared remarks, Shieh said that tuition and fees at the Ivy League have exceeded $90,000 per year, and that the school is "projected to run a $46 million deficit for the current fiscal year." "According to Brown's own disclosures, the university employs 3,805 full-time non-instructional staff," Shieh will say in his testimony. "With 7,229 undergraduate students, this translates to one non-teaching staff member for every 1.9 undergraduates. These staff do not include faculty members, but rather administrators, consultants, and support staff, many in roles of unclear necessity." Shieh is urging the House Judiciary Committee to look into why his school has become so expensive. His recommendations include subpoenaing Brown University President Christina Paxson "for testimony and documents related to administrative growth, financial aid coordination, and retaliation." He also calls for student journalists and whistleblowers to be protected from "institutional retaliation," a review of financial aid methodology used by Ivy League schools, transparency in "administrative-to-student staffing ratios and compensation for nonprofit universities receiving federal funds," and for higher learning institutions that have large tuition and spending increases to be audited. Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture "Thank you for your attention to these matters," Shieh will say in his prepared remarks. "I respectfully urge this Subcommittee to act in defense of students, families, and the American Dream." A Browkn spokesperson defended university practices in a statement to Fox News Digital. "As Brown has grown over recent decades in both the number of students we teach and the volume and impact of its research, our staff has expanded to support these important goals. In the last 15 years, we have worked responsibly to build a staff infrastructure that enables us to generate medical treatments and scientific breakthroughs that lead to real solutions for real patients and real people. We also added staffing to prepare students for successful lives and careers, which is important to students and families. Brown's staff members are vital — behind every research breakthrough and student success story, non-faculty staff are a quiet force making those accomplishments possible," the spokesperson said. "We continue to see a false 'one administrator for every two students at Brown' claim that misrepresents the university, its mission and its student body. A total of 11,232 students were enrolled at Brown in the academic year that just ended — 7,226 of those students were undergraduates. We take no issue with the 3,800 staff number. However, the false "one administrator for every two students" claim ignores the presence of our approximately 4,000 graduate and medical students. These students make up more than one third of our student body, and the staffing to support their advanced education and research is significant. Our staffing numbers should be understood in the context of the fact that Brown is a major research university that supports both undergraduate and graduate education and research. We're not an undergraduate college." They added that Brown has one of the most robust financial aid programs in the nation, and that "claims that administrative staff growth has not supported the academic experience for students" were article source: Brown student exposing Ivy League bloat gives House testimony, urges Congress to 'mandate transparency'
