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The House Judiciary Committee is prepared to subpoena Brown for documents related to a congressional investigation into alleged tuition price-fixing after the University purportedly failed to provide the requested documents by the deadline last week, according to a congressional staffer.
In an April 8 letter informing Brown of the probe, House and Senate Republicans demanded the University hand over a slew of internal documents related to financial aid and admissions practices by April 22. The staffer said Brown has yet to comply with their demand.
“Brown is fully cooperating with the robust request for information from the U.S. House and Senate Committees on the Judiciary,” University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in a Wednesday email to The Herald. “On April 22, the University submitted an initial response with responsive documents, and we will continue to provide additional responsive documents on a rolling basis.”
The congressional staffer did not share a specific timeline on which a subpoena would be issued to Brown. Letters outlining similar requests for documents were also addressed to the seven other Ivy League institutions.
The documents requested by the committees include communications with the “Council of Ivy League Presidents’ Committee on Financial Aid and Committee on Admissions” and emails with representatives from the College Board, Common Application, U.S. News and World Report and the federal executive branch.
The investigation specifically accuses the Ivy League of collectively hiking tuition prices and limiting financial aid packages in violation of U.S. antitrust laws. Brown settled a lawsuit with similar allegations in January 2024 for $19.5 million, but maintained no wrongdoing.
In an April 23 email to The Herald, Clark reiterated that “Brown has and continues 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.”
He added that Brown is “detailing this approach in our response to the committee’s request.”
Jeffrey Robbins, a visiting assistant professor of the practice of political science and a partner at Saul Ewing who chairs the firm’s Congressional Investigations Practice, called the April 22 deadline “preposterous,” noting that the requested materials “couldn’t possibly be even compiled, let alone reviewed” in two weeks.
But Robbins said setting early deadlines and broad requests for information like the one sent to Brown are “very common.” Typically, parties under investigation will hire teams of lawyers that will reach out to the staff of the committee to try and narrow the request, he said. Providing documents on a rolling basis is also common, he added.
Robbins also explained that if the committee does subpoena Brown, the University can challenge the request in court.
Congress does not need to have any evidence of antitrust violations to probe the University, Robbins further noted. The investigation could be a “fishing expedition to see if there is any evidence,” he said.
The probe comes amid additional threats by the federal government, including a $510 million funding freeze, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a freeze in all grants from the National Institutes of Health and the cancellation of millions of dollars in research grants.
Ciara Meyer is a section editor from Saratoga Springs, New York. She plans on concentrating in Statistics and English Nonfiction. In her free time, she loves scrapbooking and building lego flowers.
