The College Fix

University’s investigation was ‘wholly unacceptable,’ campus legal group says

A Brown University student journalist who sought to investigate administrative bloat was cleared of alleged student conduct violations, the institution informed him Tuesday.

Alex Shieh, (pictured) a reporter for the conservative student newspaper The Brown Spectator, celebrated the news in a statement sent to The College Fix.

“The Brown administration tried to silence me because they were upset I exposed their bloat and waste,” the sophomore stated. “The charges against me were pure retaliation, and so flimsy not even their own reviewers could find me guilty. This ruling is a win for free speech at Brown, but this fight should never have been started.”

On Tuesday, Shieh received a letter from Kirsten Wolfe, associate dean of student conduct, informing him that he had been cleared, according a copy of the letter, which the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression shared with The Fix.

“Based on a review of the information related to the circumstances of your behavior, including your own statements, the Administrative Reviewer has determined that you are not responsible for a violation of Section 3.4.24 of the Code of Student Conduct. Thus, no discipline will be imposed,” Wolfe wrote.

Wolfe announced the decision after an administrative review meeting last week with Shieh. The university accused him of violating its Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources Policy and the Brown Name Use, Trademark and Licensing Policy.

Initially, the university also accused him of misrepresenting himself as a student reporter because The Brown Spectator is not a recognized student organization. However, it later dropped the charge, according to FIRE.

On X, Shieh said he believes Brown President Christina Paxson and other administrators should apologize for “trying to punish a student for asking questions.”

I sent 3,800 emails to @BrownUniversity administrators asking what they do all day to find out why tuition is $93K a year. Instead of answering, the university opened a disciplinary investigation against me.

Now, Brown’s own reviewers have cleared me of all wrongdoing.

The only… pic.twitter.com/eq0CY05se4

— Alex Shieh (@alexkshieh) May 14, 2025

Dominic Coletti, program officer at FIRE, said the university’s investigation was “wholly unacceptable.”

Still, its “decision affirms that student journalists can continue to boldly report on Brown’s affairs and should confirm what FIRE has argued for months: student journalism is not grounds for disciplinary action,” Coletti said in a statement provided to The Fix via email.

As The Fix previously reported:

[Shieh] developed a database published at Bloat@Brown that uses an AI algorithm to “analyze each administrator’s impact on the university.” The database is on The Brown Spectator’s website. …

According to his research, the university employs one full-time staff/administrative employee for every two full-time undergraduates.

And that’s “despite budget shortfalls that leave dorms flooding when it rains,” he wrote at Bloat@Brown.

He suspects some positions, including “diversity, equity, and inclusion” roles, are unnecessary, but without more information, he could not say for sure.

So, on March 18, he emailed 3,805 administrators, asking for more details about their jobs.

The email included a link to his analysis, which placed administrators in one of three categories: “legality, redundancy, and bullshit jobs,” and asked each to “comment on your current rating in our database,” The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. Shieh based his investigation and terminology on the book “Bullshit Jobs: A Theory” by the late anthropologist David Graeber, according to the report.

MORE: Brown U. student journalist started looking into administrative bloat. Now he’s being investigated.

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Brown University sophomore Alex Shieh is investigating administrative bloat at his school. FIRE

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