Student says Brown University administrators threatened him for asking what they do

A Brown University student journalist says administrators threatened him with disciplinary action for sending a Department of Government Efficiency-inspired email asking them to explain what they do.

Mimicking an email that Elon Musk’s DOGE sent to federal workers, sophomore Alex Chieh asked 3,805 administrators at the Ivy League campus in a March 18 email to “describe what tasks you performed in the past week.”

Two days later, the 20-year-old said he received a letter threatening to restrict his access to university systems as officials probe claims that he “emotionally harmed” employees and violated confidentiality policies by sharing restricted information.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a Philadelphia free-speech group representing Mr. Chieh, reported Thursday that school officials also instructed him to keep the investigation private.

“Brown’s response flies in the face of its due process and free expression guarantees, and threatens to chill student reporting on campus,” said Dominic Coletti, a FIRE program officer.

“Due process is essential not just to guarantee defendants a fair shake, but to uphold the legitimacy of campus disciplinary proceedings. It also acts as a bulwark protecting students’ individual liberties,” he added.

Mr. Coletti said the university’s letter also made the false claim that Mr. Chieh “misrepresented” himself as “a reporter for the conservative student newspaper The Brown Spectator, which he was.”

The Washington Times has reached out to Brown for comment.

In a Thursday post on X, Mr. Chieh thanked FIRE for taking up his case.

“The only thing more bloated than Brown’s bureaucracy is its ego – per FIRE, instead of answering my questions, they started this fight,” he said. “Journalism is not a disciplinary offense.”

A page posted on the Brown Spectator website said Mr. Chieh sent the email to learn why the elite school charges $93,046 a year in tuition but has a $46 million “structural budget deficit.”

“Instead of answering, someone from a Brown IP address hacked our site,” the publication said. “The Brown admin doesn’t want you to know where your tuition goes — they told employees not to respond to our request for comment.”

The publication said the cyberattack disabled a public database on its website that included the contact information for every administrator at the school.