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Fox News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
House committee demands Brown University hand over memos on student behind DOGE-style email
EXCLUSIVE - The House Judiciary Committee is asking the president of Brown University to hand over all internal memos related to a student who sent a DOGE-style email who subsequently faced disciplinary hearings and had his private information leaked. "We are concerned that Brown's decision to file disciplinary charges against Mr. Shieh and hold a misconduct hearing may serve to suppress free speech and discourage others from coming forward and asking questions related to Brown's rising costs," the Thursday letter from the House Judiciary Committee to Brown University President Christina Paxson said. Alex 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 letter, signed by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wisc., chairman of the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, seeks to understand Brown's "rationale for attempting to silence a student raising questions about how student and taxpayer dollars are being used." The Brown Spectator, which has a board of three people, including Shieh, was revived this year after it ceased publication in 2014. The board members faced a disciplinary hearing on May 7 over allegations that they violated Brown University's name, licensing and trademark policies. Shieh previously told Fox News Digital that other campus publications also use the school's name, including "The Brown Daily Herald," another student-run nonprofit newspaper. Shieh and the Spectator faced scrutiny from the university after Shieh, during free weekends in March, 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?" Shieh used AI to try to determine what Brown employees did and why the school, which costs nearly $96,000 a year, was so expensive. When creating his database, he formatted it to identify three particular jobs: "DEI jobs, redundant jobs, and bulls--t jobs." He said that he wanted to investigate DEI because of President Donald Trump's executive orders addressing DEI policies, and his administration threatening to withhold federal funds to universities who employ them. The goal was to get as much data as possible to improve his research. Only 20 of the 3,805 people emailed responded, with many of the responses being profane and hostile, and Shieh's Social Security number was subsequently leaked. On June 4, Shieh testified before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust for a hearing entitled, "The Elite Universities Cartel: A History of Anticompetitive Collusion Inflating the Cost of Higher Education." The House Judiciary Committee is asking that Paxson, Brown's president, provide all documents and communications between Brown's employees pertaining to Shieh's "investigative inquiry, Brown University's subsequent investigation of Mr. Shieh, Brown University's decision to file disciplinary charges against Mr. Shieh, or Brown University's adjudication of Mr. Shieh's charges." The committee is also asking for all information related to what they call the "unauthorized disclosure of Mr. Shieh's personally identifiable information." "Brown University's decision to file disciplinary charges against students like Alex Shieh, simply for looking into the school's bloated bureaucracy and rising tuition costs, is a clear act of retaliation," Fitzgerald, who signed the letter, told Fox News Digital in a statement. "The Committee shares serious concerns about this troubling response and remains committed to conducting rigorous oversight into whether Brown University and other Ivy League institutions are engaging in anticompetitive pricing practices." In a statement, Brian Clark, vice president for News and Strategic Campus Communications told Fox News Digital that the university "has been cooperating with extensive requests for information from the U.S. House and Senate Committees on the Judiciary since the initial inquiry arrived in April, demonstrating that we have and continue to make decisions on tuition and financial aid independently as part of our commitment to making sure that no student's family socioeconomic circumstances prevent them from accessing the benefits of a Brown education." Clark added, "We'll continue to provide any responses to follow-up requests directly to the committees."
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
New York Post
28-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Brown University clears student of wrongdoing after DOGE-like email asking what staffers ‘do all day'
Brown University has cleared student Alex Shieh as well as the board of The Brown Spectator of allegations that they violated Brown University's name, licensing, and trademark policies. 'Elite academia is in crisis because of a refusal to accommodate ordinary Americans and an unaccountable class of bureaucrats who treat universities as corporate brands rather than institutions of learning,' Shieh told Fox News Digital in a statement. 'I think we need to rethink what it means to be elite. Today, elite schools are elitist. I'm fighting for them to be elite in a meritocratic sense, where they are filled with the best and the brightest, not the richest and most well-connected.' Advertisement Shieh, a rising junior who was cleared of wrongdoing by the university on May 14, 2025, 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, which has a board of three people, including Shieh, was revived this year after it ceased publication in 2014. The board members faced a disciplinary hearing on May 7 over allegations that they violated Brown University's name, licensing and trademark policies. 5 Brown University has cleared student Alex Shieh as well as the board of The Brown Spectator of allegations that they violated Brown University's name, licensing, and trademark policies with a DOGE-like email. Alex Shieh/X Advertisement Shieh told Fox News Digital that other campus publications also use the school's name, including 'The Brown Daily Herald,' another student-run nonprofit newspaper. 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?' In March, during free weekends, Shieh used AI to try to determine what Brown employees did and why the school, which costs nearly $96,000 a year , was so expensive. 5 'Elite academia is in crisis because of a refusal to accommodate ordinary Americans and an unaccountable class of bureaucrats who treat universities as corporate brands rather than institutions of learning,' Shieh said. wolterke – Advertisement When creating his database, he formatted it to identify three particular jobs: 'DEI jobs, redundant jobs, and bulls–t jobs.' Shieh said he wanted to investigate DEI because of President Donald Trump's executive orders addressing DEI policies, and his administration threatening to withhold federal funds to universities who employ them. The goal was to get as much data as possible to improve his research. Only 20 of the 3,805 people emailed responded, and many of the responses were profane and hostile. On Tuesday, Shieh sent a follow-up email, featured below, to Brown administrators which Shieh said was 'one last opportunity to justify their roles': Advertisement 5 Shieh and the other board members for the paper, which was revived after it ceased publication in 2014, faced a disciplinary hearing earlier this month. Zenstratus – Dear {recipient_name}, I'm a reporter for the Brown Spectator, and on June 4, I will testify before Congress regarding potential antitrust violations at Brown, including price-fixing and unlawful tying arrangements, driven by Brown's unsustainable growth in non-academic staffing and putting the cost of the American Dream out of reach for countless students who deserve a fair shot. As part of my testimony, I will submit a list of Brown employees whose positions appear potentially redundant, unnecessary, or in violation of federal civil rights laws, to be preserved permanently in the Congressional Record. In the interest of fairness and accuracy, I am offering you a second opportunity to explain your role to Brown students and the American public. Please respond to the following: 1. What are your primary responsibilities? 2. What tasks did you complete in the past 7 days? 3. How would Brown students be affected if your position were eliminated? Advertisement Those unable or unwilling to describe their job will be noted as such in the Congressional Record, and their roles will be evaluated without the benefit of their input. 5 Shieh and the Spectator faced scrutiny from Brown 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?' Alex Shieh/X Responses received by Wednesday, May 28 at 5:00 PM will be carefully considered before final materials are submitted to Congress. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Shieh said, 'Today's follow-up email is about accountability. If Brown University can charge families $93,000 a year, it should at least be able to explain what its administrators do all day. This inquiry is a moral stand against the corruption of the American Dream by bloated, unaccountable bureaucracies that put diversity statements above student success.' Advertisement He is scheduled to testify on June 4 before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust for a hearing entitled, 'The Elite Universities Cartel: A History of Anticompetitive Collusion Inflating the Cost of Higher Education.' 'Brown may be attempting to hide antitrust violations that the House Judiciary Committee is seeking to uncover,' Shieh told Fox News Digital. 'Brown had to settle a federal lawsuit last year related to illegal collusion in its financial aid packages, and this issue should be looked into further by the committee.' In a statement to Fox News Digital, Brian E. Clark, vice president for news and strategic campus communications at Brown University, said that Shieh's case was not about First Amendment issues. Advertisement 'Despite continued public reporting framing this as a free speech issue, it absolutely is not,' Clark said. 'Since the initiation of Brown's review, that review has centered on investigating whether improper use of non-public Brown data or non-public data systems violated law or policy; whether deliberate targeting of individual employees violated law or policy; and whether violations to Brown's misrepresentation or name use policies took place.' 5 'If Brown University can charge families $93,000 a year, it should at least be able to explain what its administrators do all day,' Shieh said. Fox News Digital Clark added that the university 'has detailed student conduct procedures in place to investigate alleged conduct code violations, resolve them and — in instances when students are found responsible — implement discipline. They are publicly available and outline in detail how disciplinary procedures and hearings are conducted, the rights and responsibilities students have, what outcomes might be expected, and how students can appeal decisions.' He also said their 'Student Conduct Procedures' have 'guided our actions since this issue originated. Students have ample opportunity to provide information and participate directly in that process to ensure that all decisions are made with a complete understanding of circumstances. As Brown's procedures make abundantly clear, students are not presumed to be responsible for alleged violations unless so found through the appropriate conduct proceedings.' Advertisement Clark added that 'Since the start of this matter, Brown has proceeded in complete accordance with free expression guarantees and appropriate procedural safeguards under University policies and applicable law.'
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Brown University clears student of wrongdoing after he sent campus employees DOGE-like email
Brown University has cleared student Alex Shieh as well as the board of The Brown Spectator of allegations that they violated Brown University's name, licensing, and trademark policies. "Elite academia is in crisis because of a refusal to accommodate ordinary Americans and an unaccountable class of bureaucrats who treat universities as corporate brands rather than institutions of learning," Shieh told Fox News Digital in a statement. "I think we need to rethink what it means to be elite. Today, elite schools are elitist. I'm fighting for them to be elite in a meritocratic sense, where they are filled with the best and the brightest, not the richest and most well-connected." Shieh, a rising junior who was cleared of wrongdoing by the university on May 14, 2025, 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. Brown University Student Who Angered Non-faculty Employees For Doge-like Email Faces Punishment From School The Brown Spectator, which has a board of three people, including Shieh, was revived this year after it ceased publication in 2014. The board members faced a disciplinary hearing on May 7 over allegations that they violated Brown University's name, licensing and trademark policies. Read On The Fox News App Shieh told Fox News Digital that other campus publications also use the school's name, including "The Brown Daily Herald," another student-run nonprofit newspaper. 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?" In March, during free weekends, Shieh used AI to try to determine what Brown employees did and why the school, which costs nearly $96,000 a year, was so expensive. When creating his database, he formatted it to identify three particular jobs: "DEI jobs, redundant jobs, and bulls--t jobs." Shieh said he wanted to investigate DEI because of President Donald Trump's executive orders addressing DEI policies, and his administration threatening to withhold federal funds to universities who employ them. The goal was to get as much data as possible to improve his research. Only 20 of the 3,805 people emailed responded, and many of the responses were profane and hostile. Ivy League Student Accused Of Causing 'Emotional Harm' To Non-faculty Staff For Sending Doge-like Email On Tuesday, Shieh sent a follow-up email, featured below, to Brown administrators which Shieh said was "one last opportunity to justify their roles": Dear {recipient_name}, I'm a reporter for the Brown Spectator, and on June 4, I will testify before Congress regarding potential antitrust violations at Brown, including price-fixing and unlawful tying arrangements, driven by Brown's unsustainable growth in non-academic staffing and putting the cost of the American Dream out of reach for countless students who deserve a fair shot. As part of my testimony, I will submit a list of Brown employees whose positions appear potentially redundant, unnecessary, or in violation of federal civil rights laws, to be preserved permanently in the Congressional Record. In the interest of fairness and accuracy, I am offering you a second opportunity to explain your role to Brown students and the American public. Please respond to the following: 1. What are your primary responsibilities? 2. What tasks did you complete in the past 7 days? 3. How would Brown students be affected if your position were eliminated? Those unable or unwilling to describe their job will be noted as such in the Congressional Record, and their roles will be evaluated without the benefit of their input. Responses received by Wednesday, May 28 at 5:00 PM will be carefully considered before final materials are submitted to Congress. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture In a statement to Fox News Digital, Shieh said, "Today's follow-up email is about accountability. If Brown University can charge families $93,000 a year, it should at least be able to explain what its administrators do all day. This inquiry is a moral stand against the corruption of the American Dream by bloated, unaccountable bureaucracies that put diversity statements above student success." He is scheduled to testify on June 4 before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust for a hearing entitled, "The Elite Universities Cartel: A History of Anticompetitive Collusion Inflating the Cost of Higher Education." "Brown may be attempting to hide antitrust violations that the House Judiciary Committee is seeking to uncover," Shieh told Fox News Digital. "Brown had to settle a federal lawsuit last year related to illegal collusion in its financial aid packages, and this issue should be looked into further by the committee." In a statement to Fox News Digital, Brian E. Clark, vice president for news and strategic campus communications at Brown University, said that Shieh's case was not about First Amendment issues. "Despite continued public reporting framing this as a free speech issue, it absolutely is not," Clark said. "Since the initiation of Brown's review, that review has centered on investigating whether improper use of non-public Brown data or non-public data systems violated law or policy; whether deliberate targeting of individual employees violated law or policy; and whether violations to Brown's misrepresentation or name use policies took place." Clark added that the university "has detailed student conduct procedures in place to investigate alleged conduct code violations, resolve them and — in instances when students are found responsible — implement discipline. They are publicly available and outline in detail how disciplinary procedures and hearings are conducted, the rights and responsibilities students have, what outcomes might be expected, and how students can appeal decisions." He also said their "Student Conduct Procedures" have "guided our actions since this issue originated. Students have ample opportunity to provide information and participate directly in that process to ensure that all decisions are made with a complete understanding of circumstances. As Brown's procedures make abundantly clear, students are not presumed to be responsible for alleged violations unless so found through the appropriate conduct proceedings." Clark added that "Since the start of this matter, Brown has proceeded in complete accordance with free expression guarantees and appropriate procedural safeguards under University policies and applicable law."Original article source: Brown University clears student of wrongdoing after he sent campus employees DOGE-like email
Fox News
28-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Brown University clears student of wrongdoing after he sent campus employees DOGE-like email
Brown University has cleared student Alex Shieh as well as the board of The Brown Spectator of allegations that they violated Brown University's name, licensing, and trademark policies. "Elite academia is in crisis because of a refusal to accommodate ordinary Americans and an unaccountable class of bureaucrats who treat universities as corporate brands rather than institutions of learning," Shieh told Fox News Digital in a statement. "I think we need to rethink what it means to be elite. Today, elite schools are elitist. I'm fighting for them to be elite in a meritocratic sense, where they are filled with the best and the brightest, not the richest and most well-connected." Shieh, a rising junior who was cleared of wrongdoing by the university on May 14, 2025, 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, which has a board of three people, including Shieh, was revived this year after it ceased publication in 2014. The board members faced a disciplinary hearing on May 7 over allegations that they violated Brown University's name, licensing and trademark policies. Shieh told Fox News Digital that other campus publications also use the school's name, including "The Brown Daily Herald," another student-run nonprofit newspaper. 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?" In March, during free weekends, Shieh used AI to try to determine what Brown employees did and why the school, which costs nearly $96,000 a year, was so expensive. When creating his database, he formatted it to identify three particular jobs: "DEI jobs, redundant jobs, and bulls--t jobs." Shieh said he wanted to investigate DEI because of President Donald Trump's executive orders addressing DEI policies, and his administration threatening to withhold federal funds to universities who employ them. The goal was to get as much data as possible to improve his research. Only 20 of the 3,805 people emailed responded, and many of the responses were profane and hostile. On Tuesday, Shieh sent a follow-up email, featured below, to Brown administrators which Shieh said was "one last opportunity to justify their roles": Dear {recipient_name}, I'm a reporter for the Brown Spectator, and on June 4, I will testify before Congress regarding potential antitrust violations at Brown, including price-fixing and unlawful tying arrangements, driven by Brown's unsustainable growth in non-academic staffing and putting the cost of the American Dream out of reach for countless students who deserve a fair shot. As part of my testimony, I will submit a list of Brown employees whose positions appear potentially redundant, unnecessary, or in violation of federal civil rights laws, to be preserved permanently in the Congressional Record. In the interest of fairness and accuracy, I am offering you a second opportunity to explain your role to Brown students and the American public. Please respond to the following: 1. What are your primary responsibilities? 2. What tasks did you complete in the past 7 days? 3. How would Brown students be affected if your position were eliminated? Those unable or unwilling to describe their job will be noted as such in the Congressional Record, and their roles will be evaluated without the benefit of their input. Responses received by Wednesday, May 28 at 5:00 PM will be carefully considered before final materials are submitted to Congress. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Shieh said, "Today's follow-up email is about accountability. If Brown University can charge families $93,000 a year, it should at least be able to explain what its administrators do all day. This inquiry is a moral stand against the corruption of the American Dream by bloated, unaccountable bureaucracies that put diversity statements above student success." He is scheduled to testify on June 4 before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust for a hearing entitled, "The Elite Universities Cartel: A History of Anticompetitive Collusion Inflating the Cost of Higher Education." "Brown may be attempting to hide antitrust violations that the House Judiciary Committee is seeking to uncover," Shieh told Fox News Digital. "Brown had to settle a federal lawsuit last year related to illegal collusion in its financial aid packages, and this issue should be looked into further by the committee." In a statement to Fox News Digital, Brian E. Clark, vice president for news and strategic campus communications at Brown University, said that Shieh's case was not about First Amendment issues. "Despite continued public reporting framing this as a free speech issue, it absolutely is not," Clark said. "Since the initiation of Brown's review, that review has centered on investigating whether improper use of non-public Brown data or non-public data systems violated law or policy; whether deliberate targeting of individual employees violated law or policy; and whether violations to Brown's misrepresentation or name use policies took place." Clark added that the university "has detailed student conduct procedures in place to investigate alleged conduct code violations, resolve them and — in instances when students are found responsible — implement discipline. They are publicly available and outline in detail how disciplinary procedures and hearings are conducted, the rights and responsibilities students have, what outcomes might be expected, and how students can appeal decisions." He also said their "Student Conduct Procedures" have "guided our actions since this issue originated. Students have ample opportunity to provide information and participate directly in that process to ensure that all decisions are made with a complete understanding of circumstances. As Brown's procedures make abundantly clear, students are not presumed to be responsible for alleged violations unless so found through the appropriate conduct proceedings." Clark added that "Since the start of this matter, Brown has proceeded in complete accordance with free expression guarantees and appropriate procedural safeguards under University policies and applicable law."
