Alex Shieh, a student at Brown University, slammed the Ivy League institution for high prices, “bloat and bureaucracy” in testimony before Congress on Wednesday.
Shieh, a rising junior at Brown, said he was “exactly who the Ivy League was built for” as both his parents are doctors, he is a legacy student at Brown and he attended a preparatory “feeder school” into the university which allowed him to pursue “the American dream.”
However, he said, many others are denied the opportunities he had to pursue the dream of utilizing an Ivy League degree to achieve status in the upper echelons of society.
“That dream is now a luxury good,” Shieh said on a panel before the House judiciary subcommittee on administrative state, regulatory reform and antitrust.
Shieh criticized Brown for raising tuition to more than $90,000 per year while being on track to run a $46 million deficit.
“Where’s all the money going?” Sheih asked. “I’ll tell you where it’s going; it’s going to an empire of administrative bloat and bureaucracy.”
Shieh said the university employs 3,805 full time non-instructional staff for 7,229 undergraduate students.
“This isn’t education; this is bloat paid for on the backs of families who are mortgaging their futures for a shot at a better life,” Shieh said.
Shieh said budget cuts at Brown led to dorm flooding and “unappetizing” changes to food at Brown’s dining halls while many administrators remained on payroll.
“Across the pond, a world-class education at Oxford or Cambridge can cost about half as much as an Ivy League degree, in part, due to a much lower administrative burden,” he said.
Shieh also pointed out that Brown settled an antitrust lawsuit regarding financial aid collusion last year.
On March 18, Shieh sent Brown administrators a DOGE-style email asking what they did in the previous week.
The school investigated Shieh and two other students on violations of the university’s code of student conduct including emotional and psychological harm. After the investigation, Brown cleared the students’ actions.
“This committee has a responsibility – not just to investigate Ivy League antitrust violations – but to reclaim the American dream from those who have twisted it into a racket,” Shieh said.
Shieh asked the committee to subpoena Christina Paxton, Brown’s president, and investigate the reasons behind Brown’s $93,000 tuition.
“The American dream isn’t just for the legacies, the coastal elites, or the children of privilege,” Shieh said.
“It belongs to the kid in rural Kansas with a 4.0 GPA, the [first generation] student working a night shift and the families who did everything right and still got priced out. They deserve a seat at the table, they deserve a shot of making it big, their American dreams matter too.”
