Bloat@Brown creator Alex Shieh ’27 testified in front of Congress on Wednesday morning in a hearing related to a congressional probe accusing Ivy League schools of antitrust violations and collectively hiking tuition prices.
Shieh — one of four witnesses at the hearing — called on the committee to subpoena President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 and ask her why Brown’s sticker price has exceeded $90,000 per year.
University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald that it is “regrettable that a witness in today’s hearing offered so many misrepresentations about Brown’s students, employees and efforts to provide an exceptional educational experience and conduct high-impact research.”
Clark previously told The Herald that “Brown’s financial aid program is among the most robust in the nation” and that the University meets 100% of undergraduates’ “demonstrated financial need.”
In March, Shieh launched Bloat@Brown, a database aiming to expose alleged “administrative bloat” at Brown. Inspired by emails sent to federal employees by the Department of Government Efficiency, Shieh contacted over 3,000 University administrators, asking them to describe what they had accomplished over the previous week.
Shieh was subsequently investigated for alleged student conduct violations. In May, Brown cleared him of all charges.
In late April, Shieh expanded Bloat@Brown into Trailhouse, a database which details information about administrators from several other universities outside of College Hill.
Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio 4) said in his opening statement that Shieh’s work has revealed how universities continually hike tuition rates while hiring “an unbelievable amount of administrators.”
During questioning at the hearing, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md. 8) asked Shieh if he supported cuts to federal financial aid, Pell Grants and work-study programs. Shieh said he believes that subsidizing the cost of education through such programs raises tuition.
At the hearing, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis. 5) — chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee which ran Wednesday’s hearing — accused the Ivy League of prioritizing “profit and prestige over access and fairness.”
Brown was previously sued in a 2022 class action lawsuit for allegations of price-fixing, mirroring the claims congressional investigators are now making. Brown settled the lawsuit in 2024 for nearly $20 million but has continued to maintain a position of no wrongdoing.
Preston Cooper — another witness at the hearing who serves as a senior fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute — also highlighted a 2024 lawsuit filed against Brown and other schools for allegedly increasing the price of attendance for students with divorced or separated parents through price-fixing practices.
Cooper claimed that Ivy League schools have “surplus revenue” that fuels “a vast administrative bureaucracy.” Brown’s total revenue in fiscal year 2024 was $1.3 billion. Expenses exceeded revenue by several million dollars, with staff salaries, wages and employee benefits making up approximately 30% of total expenses.
Julie Margetta Morgan, president of progressive think tank The Century Foundation and another witness, said the committee’s investigation was an ineffective way to address college costs. Rep. Jesús Garcia (D-Ill. 4) suggested that Congress instead consider policy options like free public college, limiting tuition increases, increasing need-based aid, reforming the student loan system and supporting trade schools.
In the midst of Shieh’s disciplinary investigation at Brown, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas 22) wrote a letter to Paxson in support of Shieh. In the letter, he also asked Brown to explain how its endowment is used to “improve the student experience or lower tuition costs.”
Nehls is an author on a bill aiming to raise taxes on private universities’ endowment funds. In the hearing, he praised similar language threatening to raise the endowment tax in a bill passed by the House in May.
At the hearing, Jordan criticized Brown for its investigation into Shieh. “I think that (Brown was) upset that you unveiled the rot that was going on with all these administrators with pretty useless jobs,” he said to Shieh.
In an email to The Herald, Clark wrote that “claims that administrative staff growth does not support the academic experience for students misrepresent the reality.”
“Brown’s staff members are vital — behind every research breakthrough and student success story, non-faculty staff are a quiet force making those accomplishments possible,” Clark wrote, adding that staff members support medical and graduate students in addition to undergraduates.
The University’s staff has grown in light of Brown’s transition from a liberal arts college to a research institution, Clark noted. Between 2014 and 2024, Brown’s undergraduate enrollment increased by 18%, graduate enrollment increased by 59% and medical school enrollment increased by 30%, Clark added.
The broader congressional investigation into alleged price fixing at Brown and the Ivies began on April 8, when congressional Republicans sent a letter requesting that the University provide documents related to admissions and financial aid practices by April 22. On April 30, a congressional staffer wrote in an email to The Herald that Brown had not complied with their request, adding that the committee was prepared to subpoena the University for the documents.
Clark previously told The Herald that the University provided an initial response on April 22 and has been sharing documents on a rolling basis since then.
The investigation comes amid a broader attack on higher education by the Trump administration. Brown is facing a $510 million federal funding freeze, a pause on all funding from the National Institutes of Health and has been placed under investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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.
