Brown student exposing Ivy League bloat gives House testimony, urges Congress to ‘mandate transparency’

SPECIFIC - Brown University participant Alex Shieh who was lately 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 multiple 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 facts from The New York Times the median family income of Brown students is over the highest among Ivy League universities his prepared announcement continues Forty-seven percent of the aspirant body comes from the top of earners in the U S A inquiry 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 FRENZYShieh a rising junior who was cleared of wrongdoing by the university on May had previously angered school functionaries 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 The board members faced a disciplinary hearing on May over claims that they violated Brown University s name licensing and trademark policies Shieh and the Spectator faced scrutiny from the university after Shieh began scrutinizing positions he deemed redundant after reviewing 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 Trialhouse com a website that performed similar analysis on Columbia University Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania Shieh mentioned in his prepared remarks I emailed each administrator at Brown with a request for comment Shieh added Only responded One replied with F--k off Soon after the university instructed employees not to respond and the site was hacked My social safeguard 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 innovation agenda and alleged trademark protocol violations Shieh sent a follow-up email to Brown administrators on May which Shieh previously described Fox News Digital was one last opportunity to justify their roles IVY LEAGUE PARTICIPANT ACCUSED OF CAUSING 'EMOTIONAL HARM' TO NON-FACULTY STAFF FOR SENDING DOGE-LIKE EMAILIn his prepared remarks Shieh noted that tuition and fees at the Ivy League have exceeded per year and that the school is projected to run a million deficit for the current fiscal year According to Brown s own disclosures the university employs full-time non-instructional staff Shieh will say in his testimony With undergraduate students this translates to one non-teaching staff member for every undergraduates These staff do not include faculty members but rather administrators consultants and help staff a large number of 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 rise financial aid coordination and retaliation He also calls for aspirant 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 TRADITION 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 report to Fox News Digital As Brown has grown over newest decades in both the number of students we teach and the volume and impact of its research our staff has expanded to sponsorship these vital goals In the last years we have worked responsibly to build a staff infrastructure that enables us to generate healthcare treatments and scientific breakthroughs that lead to real solutions for real patients and real people We also added staffing to prepare students for flourishing lives and careers which is key to students and families Brown s staff members are vital behind every research breakthrough and novice success story non-faculty staff are a quiet force making those accomplishments manageable the spokesperson declared We continue to see a false one administrator for every two students at Brown claim that misrepresents the university its mission and its apprentice body A total of students were enrolled at Brown in the academic year that just ended of those students were undergraduates We take no issue with the staff number However the false one administrator for every two students claim ignores the presence of our approximately graduate and anatomical students These students make up more than one third of our novice body and the staffing to help their advanced learning and research is vital 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 learning and research We re not an undergraduate college