On College Hill in Providence Tuesday, a libertarian sophomore called out Brown University for shutting down a cheeky student journalism project inspired by DOGE taking aim at administrative bloat.
Just down the hill, pro-Palestinian students vented their rage at Rhode Island School of Design for moving an installation of anti-zionist art from a cafe at a campus hub.
In both cases, the students are testing the institutional commitment to freedom of speech at a time when university administrators, under massive pressure from the White House, are trying desperately to keep their heads down.
Trump has already gone after Columbia and Harvard, threatening to cut billions of dollars in federal grants and funds for allegedly failing to crack down on anti-Semitism.
At other universities, federal watchdogs are busy scrutinizing DEI programs, trans participation in sports, and even in some cases the curriculum itself.
Officials at RISD and Brown worry they might be next.
A DOGE copycat at Brown
Brown sophomore Alex Shieh said the controversial project he ginned up last month was part of the revival of a conservative student newspaper.
Taking a page from Elon Musk, Shieh used AI to scrape contact details of all Brown non-faculty staff from publicly available databases such as LinkedIn.
His ‘Bloat at Brown’ database quickly grew to 3,805 names, titles, and email addresses.
“That’s one for every two undergraduates and twice the number of faculty members we have,” Shieh said.
At 8:30 a.m. March 17, Shieh sent out an email blast to all of them.
It said: “Could you please (1) explain your role, (2) describe what tasks you performed in the past week, (3) explain how Brown students would be impacted if your position was eliminated, and (4) comment on your current rating in our database and any areas of concern raised by the algorithm?”
University administrators were not amused.
In a prepared statement, Brown’s spokesman Brian Clark said, “We advised employees, many of whom expressed concerns, not to respond, and evaluated the situation from a policy standpoint.”
“We are treating this matter with the utmost seriousness,” the statement said.
Citing federal privacy laws, Clark declined to say whether Shieh may face disciplinary proceedings.
Shieh said he was not free to discuss whether he may face disciplinary proceedings, but noted that the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has reported the university did threaten to charge him with a variety of offenses.
In his statement, Clark appeared to take issue with that report but declined to elaborate, citing federal privacy laws.
“The University cannot provide additional details, even to refute the inaccuracies and mischaracterizations that have been made public,” he said.
For his part, Shieh sees it differently.
“This is clearly just an attempt at censorship of student journalists who are bringing up a story that Brown doesn’t like,” he said.
Shieh insisted his inquiry gets at an uncomfortable issue for elite universities: the skyrocketing price tag for students and their families.
“There’s something wrong if you’re charging students $93,000 for one year at Brown,” he said. “I think that’s exorbitant.
“I think the reason for this is not because of the professors; we know they’re underpaid. It’s not because of the facilities; my dorm floods when it rains. It’s not any of these things. It’s these administrative jobs that have been growing since the 1990’s.
“It’s no surprise that in the same time that administrative jobs have ballooned, so has tuition,” he said.
Shieh was pleased that his inquiry caught the attention of the disruptive billionaire he admires. On the social media platform X, Elon Musk retweeted Shieh’s story with one word: “Wow”
RISD struggles to balance sensitivities
Over at RISD, supporters of the Students for Justice in Palestine aren’t backing down in their efforts to advocate for civilians being harmed by Israel’s ongoing war and occupation in Gaza.
Last year, students occupied the main campus administration building, known as Prov-Wash, for several days calling for divestment and sanctions, but eventually left when the college threatened to expel them.
Ironically, this year that same building is the new venue for an exhibition of student artwork inspired by the protests.
“There were multiple posters in that exhibit that were either created last May during the occupation or were centered around how RISD is complicit with companies enabling the military occupation of Palestine,” said JO, one of the student organizers who did not want their full name published.
The installation, titled “To Every Orange Tree,” originally opened March 17 — coincidentally the same day Shieh sent out his controversial email at Brown — at the Carr House Café, a student-run venue that is open to the public.
But a group called StopAntisemitism objected, claiming the polemical artwork was “promoting violence against Jews and calling for the removal of Israel,” prompting RISD to move it out of the café and into a third-floor space in Prov-Wash. In a statement, RISD said the exhibition had become “the focus of negative and concerning public attention.”
Student activists see the move as an effort by the university to limit the impact of their artwork.
“This is blatant censorship,” said JO.
“We literally cannot be shoved into a private office space in a building that no one goes to and that would only be accessible via a RISD ID swipe,” the student said.
The campus activists said not only does the forced removal limit the number of people who can see their work, it also means people who do visit could be putting themselves at risk.
“We know RISD public safety uses [ID swipes] to surveil students and where they go,” JO said.
International students at Columbia, Tufts, and elsewhere have been subject to arrest and deportation because the Trump administration has tried to equate support for Palestine with advocating terrorism.
Supporters of the exhibition are clearly aware of the sensitivities involved in campus activism about Israel. At a campus protest on Tuesday, everyone was encouraged to wear a mask.
But the masked students at RISD were full-throated in their support for Gazans. They even used the chant “From the river to the sea / Palestine,” which some Jewish organizations have claimed is antisemitic and advocates ethnic cleansing.
Like Brown, RISD is struggling to placate multiple constituencies at a time of heightened sensitivities.
In her statement, RISD spokeswoman Jaime Marland said the school is trying “to prioritize safety, honor our commitments to artistic expression and freedom of speech, and uphold our commitment to a culture of care, particularly in these fraught times.”
