'Not the wisest move': University's controversial choice is put under microscope

A student journalist’s Department of Government Efficiency-like questions landed him and two others at Brown University under investigation. According to a New York Times report, it’s showing the struggle universities are having, “protecting the rights of students to express themselves, after years of trying to adjudicate just when political expression tips into harassment.”

“Please describe your role,” sophomore Alex Shieh asked the staff at Brown. He also asked, “What tasks have you performed in the past week? How would Brown students be affected if your job didn’t exist?”

Shieh was asking questions for “The Brown Spectator,” which is a newspaper Shieh and others are relaunching on campus.

While many ignored the questions, the Times said, others, “including those in the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, were not amused.”

The email caused Shieh, as well as two others, "to be under investigation for possible violations of the university’s code of student conduct,” the Times said.

The investigation was later dropped, and Shieh said claims his questions were “trying to make a universal point about the cost of higher education,” the Times said.

“It’s not inherently conservative to want to make education more affordable,” Shieh said.

Another member of The Spectator’s staff faced disciplinary action after an editorial he published caught the ire of the University.

In the piece, Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Marcus argued that a vibrant campus depended on “the freedom to ask hard questions, publish unpopular opinions, and hold powerful institutions to account.”

Marcus told the Times, he and The Spectator’s managing editor joked, “There’s no way they’re going to charge us.”

“Both students soon learned their confidence was misplaced,” the Times said. “Even so, Mr. Marcus said that his disciplinary experience felt like a relief compared with his experience on campus as an Orthodox Jew and supporter of Israel. “

“I got heckled, spit at, flipped off,” Marcus said. “It was very rough.”

Marcus said the disciplinary action from Brown was “confusing.”

“I don’t want to pick a fight with the university,” Marcus said. “I just want the paper to be alive and well.”

The Times reports, “A spokesman for Brown said that the university followed a standard procedure for students accused of conduct violations, and that this case was no different.”

“Brown proceeded in complete accordance with free expression guarantees and appropriate procedural safeguards under University policies and applicable law,” spokesman Brian Clark said.

Economics professor at Brown, Glenn C. Loury, suggested that the University's actions against the students “wasn’t the wisest move.”

“After a 10-year hiatus, the first issues of The Brown Spectator started appearing on campus last month,” the Times said.