Campus legitimate group calls for university’s investigation to be “wholly unethical.”
The Brown University informed a scholar journalist who wanted to look into administrative bloat that he had been cleared of reported student conduct violations on Tuesday.
The Brown Spectator, a liberal student newspaper, and Alex Shieh, a reporter for The College Fix, expressed his gratitude for the information in a declaration.
The freshman claimed that the Brown management tried to silence me because they were upset that I exposed their waste and bloat. The allegations against me were real retaliation, and they were so implausible that no one else could find me guilty. Brown may have won this case for free speech, but this fight should never have begun.
A copy of the letter, which the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression shared with The Fix, was sent to Shieh on Tuesday, informing him that he had been cleared.
The Administrative Reviewer determined that you are not liable for a violation of Segment 3.4.24 of the Code of Student Conduct after reviewing the information regarding the circumstances of your actions, including your own claims. Therefore, no control may be imposed,” Wolfe wrote.
Wolfe and Shieh held an operational assessment conference last week, and they made the decision. He was charged by the school of breaking both the Brown Name Use, Trademark, and Licensing Policy and its Appropriate Use of Information Technology Resources Policy.
The Brown Spectator is never a recognized student business, so the school first accused him of misrepresenting himself as a pupil writer. However, the charge was eventually dropped, a source close to FIRE claims.
Shieh said on X that he thinks Brown President Christina Paxson and other officials should apologise for” trying to punish a scholar for asking concerns.”
I sent 3,800 messages to the executives at Brown University asking what they do all day and how they could explain why fee costs$ 93K annually. The school opened a disciplinary research against me instead of responding.
Now, Brown’s individual writers have found me innocent of any wrongdoing.
The just… image. twitter.com/eq0CY05se4
— Alex Shieh ( @alexkshieh ) May 14, 2025
The school’s investigation was “wholly unethical,” according to Dominic Coletti, programme officer at FIRE.
However, Coletti said in a speech sent to The Fix via email that the decision “affirms that student journalists may remain confidently reporting on Brown’s affairs and confirms what FIRE has been saying for months: student journalism is no grounds for administrative action.”
As The Fix earlier stated:
[ Shieh ] created a database for use of an AI algorithm to “analyze each administrator’s impact on the university” that was published at Bloat@Brown. The website hosts the repository for The Brown Spectator. …
According to his analysis, for every two full-time undergraduate, the universities has one administrative or staff member.
And he wrote at Bloat@Brown, “despite budget deficits that cause dorms to flood when it rains.”
He believes some opportunities, including “diversity, capital, and inclusion,” are unnecessary, but he could not say for certain without more details.
But, he sent 3, 805 officials a message on March 18 asking for more information about their jobs.
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the message included a link to his research, which placed officials in one of three categories: “legality, reliability, and bullshit jobs.” According to the report, Shieh based his research and wording on the late archaeologist David Graeber’s book” Bullshit Jobs: A Theory”
MORE: A undergraduate journalist from Brown University began looking into operational slack. He is currently being looked into.
SUMMARY CREDIT AND IMAGE CAPTION: Brown University freshman Alex Shieh is looking into operational snooping at his institution. IRE
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