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U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls (R-T.X. 22) expressed alarm about “administrative bloat” at Brown and questioned the University’s tax-exempt status and its actions in ongoing student disciplinary proceedings in a Friday letter sent to President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20.
Nehls pointed to Brown’s $7.2 billion endowment and its average annual return of around 10%, requesting an explanation from Paxson about “how these funds are used to improve the student experience or bring down the cost of tuition.”
This January, Nehls introduced the Endowment Tax Fairness Act in the House. If passed, the bill would implement a 21% excise tax — equivalent to the corporate tax rate — on investment income for private universities with endowments amounting to at least $500,000 per student, like Brown.
Currently, Brown pays an endowment tax rate of 1.4% in accordance with a law passed under the first Trump administration. Last month, Brown hired AxAdvocacy, a GOP-affiliated firm, to lobby Congress on taxation issues amid threats of increased endowment taxes, The Herald previously reported.
Nehls’s efforts accompany a slew of actions by the Trump administration to target higher education institutions, including plans to freeze $510 million in federal funding to the University. On Friday, Trump said he plans to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status following the university’s refusal to cooperate with the administration’s demands, but his ability to do so is legally tenuous, experts say.
Nehls began the letter by condemning the University’s recent disciplinary action against Alex Shieh ’27, who created the Bloat@Brown database in an attempt to evaluate the necessity of administrators’ jobs at Brown.
After Shieh sent emails to around 3,800 administrators at Brown asking them to “describe what tasks you performed in the past week,” he was notified on March 20 that the University was launching a “Preliminary Review” into alleged violations of Brown’s Code of Student Conduct. The school’s investigation is ongoing with a hearing scheduled for Wednesday, according to Shieh.
“When these institutions, which operate in a largely tax-free world, appear more interested in stifling dissenting viewpoints and inquiry into their administrative bloat, it prompts serious questions about their tax-exempt status and how their large endowments contribute to the broader public good,” Nehls wrote.
In addition to asking about the endowment, Nehls urged the University to “reconsider any disciplinary action” against Shieh.
University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald that Brown’s investigation into Shieh “absolutely is not” a free speech issue.
Although Clark declined to comment on the letter directly, he emphasized the endowment’s “vital role” in supporting the University’s operating budget each year. “For the most recently completed full fiscal year at Brown (FY24), a $281 million contribution to the operating budget supported student scholarships, professorships, academic programs, teaching and research, among many other priorities,” Clark wrote.
“The contribution marked an all-time high, representing $26,171 per student and 21% of Brown’s total revenue,” Clark added. This fiscal year, the endowment is providing $337.7 million of revenue to support University priorities, according to the approved budget.
Elena Jiang is a University News Editor from Shanghai, China concentrating in English Nonfiction and International & Public Affairs.
