Brown student testifies before House committee on DEI bureaucracy, tuition costs
A student at Brown University recently testified before the House Judiciary Committee about his school’s budget, which he has critiqued due to perceived administrative bloat.
The student previously published information about the extent of the school’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy.
A student at Brown University recently testified before the House Judiciary Committee about his school’s budget, which he has critiqued due to perceived administrative bloat.
Junior Alex Shieh previously published information about the extent of the school’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy. In his remarks to the committee, he observed a disconnect between Brown’s tuition and budget deficit.
“Brown University charges students $93,064 per year in total cost of attendance, one ofthe highest in the country,” Shieh’s testimony states. “Despite this, the university operates with a projected $46 million budget deficit for the 2025 fiscal year.”
“Employee salaries, wages and benefits are the largest category of university expenses, with a budget of $818 million, 43% of Brown’s total budget,” his testimony continued.
Shieh also alleged that his investigation into Brown’s expenses resulted in “university retaliation” which included “disciplinary charges” being brought against him. Those charges were later dropped and the student was cleared of wrong-doing in May, according to Fox News.
The student also spoke to the committee about his investigation into administrative bloat at Brown.
“As an investigative reporter for The Brown Spectator, I launched Bloat@Brown, a website that used AI to analyze administrative staff roles and necessity,” he stated. “I emailed each administrator at Brown with a request for comment.”
Following the emails, Shieh testified, the university told its employees “not to respond,” Shieh’s website was hacked, and the school began the disciplinary process against him. Later, in April, Republicans in Congress launched a probe into Brown, requesting the school produce financial aid documents, according to The Brown Daily Herald.
Campus Reform has reported that the Brown administration subsequently charged members of the conservative Brown Spectator’s board of directors for violating the school’s trademark, despite not pursuing a similar action against the more liberal Brown Daily Herald.
Shieh concluded his testimony by requesting that the House Judiciary Committee subpoena Brown’s president for documents about financial aid, mandate transparency in staff-to-student ratios, and protect student journalists against “institutional retaliation.”
In a statement provided to Campus Reform, Brown University spokesperson Brian Clark said that Shieh has misrepresented the school’s budgetary situation.
“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,” Clark stated.
“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,” the spokesperson continued. “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.”
