Bloated University staff contributed to tuition changing to $93,064
Alex Shieh, a sophomore at Brown University “took action” when he learned that tuition at the university was set to be $93,064. Shieh did some research and discovered that Brown was adding administrative staff faster than they were adding students, professors, and administrators. The administrative staff population numbers were too large given the university population they were supposed to support.
From New York Post:
A sophomore at Brown University is facing the school’s wrath after he sent a DOGE-like email to non-faculty employees asking them what they do all day to try to figure out why the elite school’s tuition has gotten so expensive.
“The inspiration for this is the rising cost of tuition,” Alex Shieh told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“Next year, it’s set to be $93,064 to go to Brown,” Shieh said of the Ivy League university. Brown’s website estimates the total charges to attend the school for the 2025-2026 school year is even higher at $95,984.
“‘And I think that’s crazy,” he added. “I don’t understand why it costs that much. And I never understood why it cost that much, but then I did some digging and I discovered that the reason why the price of college in general across the nation, but also particularly at Brown, has been rising over the past few decades. Far outpacing inflation is because we’re adding on administrative staff faster than we’re adding students, faster than we’re having professors, administrators.”
The total cost of attending Brown University for the 2019-2020 school year was $78,706.00, a 3.62% increase from the previous year. It’s risen steadily since then and is projected to be nearly $96,000 in the 2025-26 school year.
Using AI during some free weekends in March from a common room in his dorm’s basement that routinely floods whenever it rains — making plastic tarps for the shared work and leisure space a necessity for a school that charges students around $90,000 per year -Shieh set out to determine what Brown employees did and why the school was so expensive.
Additional Reading:
Guidice, R. D. (2025, page 4). Brown University student asks non-faculty staff what they do all day after tuition skyrockets to $93K a year: ‘A lot of hostile replies’. New York Post. Link.
Heaven Forbid people start holding other people or companies accountable for their actions.
That would be “racist,” especially if they’re leftist/woketard favored…
Especially in academia.
Just like all public institutions, hiring people to justify their raising taxes/tuition/fees and bloated spending.
This young man needs to wise up and transfer to another college. 360,000 dollars for a degree that may wind up being worthless is just plain crazy.
An accredited BA/BS degree is about the same anywhere these days, get it the cheapest you can. Don’t ruin your life for “name” school.
Got my BA from an online school that doesnt even exist anymore (fare the well, Ashford…we hardly knew ye) and got my MS from Liberty (Go Flames). Military paid for both and im livin’ large working on my second pension and full retirement before im 60.
Well done, Alex. The question now is whether Alex dug into this because he was already conservative? Or will the realization that liberal organizations suck the life blood (and money) from anyone or anything make him conservative?
Or, will he somehow conclude this is Trump’s fault and he (Alex) must be racist?
Well, at least Alex Shieh wasn’t shieh about opening his mouth on the school charging more tuition moola shmoola.
Whats the difference between a College and a University…
[…] This ain’t Hell…: Bloated University staff contributed to tuition changing to $93,064 […]
The Pirate’s Cove
I had a paying gig back in the day with the local public school system maintaining all of the electronics in a 62 school buildings system. There were two (2) of us for this. The Board of Education had a Head Guy, with a secretary, an assistant super, with a secretary, and a coupla clerks. The offices were in a small building. Now-a-days, with less buildings, less students, the Board occupies an expanded former K-Mart Building with 100s of admin types having Assistant Super of this that and the other thing. And all of them have assistants and secretaries…and minions.
Doesn’t seem as if “Institutes of Higher Learning” are turning out very many smart people…other than they fact they are “smart enough” to game the system and be a burden on the taxpayer.
But the eighth graders still can’t read!
Maybe if they were paid to learn???
Hey, it’s a progressive jobs program for cronies like any other…
This is NOT the critical theory they were hoping to instill (install?) in that young, impressionable mind. 93k says they didn’t see that coming.
Indeed:
They didn’t raise the tuition because of the bloated staff. The bloating of the staff is because they know they can get away with increasing tuition because the students have a nearly limitless money supply to pay whatever the tuition is through federally-funded student loans.
Back in my day (1968), I took out a student loan of $1500 to pay for my tuition, books, and living expenses for the period before I graduated and went on active duty. It was made by a private lender, the only source of student loans. I paid it back within the first 45 days after I left AD, with some of all that pay I saved from my extended tour in the Viet of the Nam. Obviously, such small student loans had little or no effect on tuition increases.
Well done. I worked in the dining hall, serving and clearing tables…at the time (1956-60), the highest paying job available to students for the grand sum of $0.45 per meal! Morning, noon and evening. What’s minimum wage now? I shutter when I see how extravagant and wasteful young folks are today. Indulged generation.
Could it be Administrators adding more and more people to make themselves feel more important? Asking for a friend.
It’s called administrative empire building. The larger your department, the larger the budget you can justify.
Look how much the ivy league colleges have squirreled away in endowments. Tax free to boot.
Academia is about to have to start trimming some fat.
There are some good ones, for sure. But there are some assclowns, as well.
Tough choices about t o be made….
When I started college in 1979 one credit hour cost $9.50. I paid a grand total of $114.00 for my first quarter in school. Getting about $330.00/month from the old G.I. bill was more than enough to get me through. I didn’t owe a penny when I graduated.
My father made good on his promise to pay my tuition and books for my first quarter at the university. Tuition was $110 per quarter for 16 to 18 credit hours. With my books, he may have spent about $200. After that, I was on my own. I paid my way with my part-time jobs until my ROTC scholarship started my junior year, including paying my rent and living expenses. I lived in a dorm at the Newman Center until I shared an apartment with a music major. (Odd factoid: He ended up being the First French Horn with the Sydney, Australia symphony.)
We were peculiar roommates: A wannabe professional Army officer and a professional classical musician.
Sounds like the premise of a comedy show.
“Rgr769 is an Army Officer. Frenchie is a classical musician. Can two college students share an apartment without driving each other crazy?”
The horn is called “French.” My roommate was born in Seattle. But sacre bleu, a French character would make for more comedy. The characters could fight over the last croissant in one episode. But nowadays, the writers would make the characters both gay.
Correction: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
At U. of Fla. in 1973 my tuition was ~$180/quarter for full-time (12+hours). Books ,etc. about another $180, and food & housing another $180. VA paid about $180/month so I just about broke even. Just checked and current tuition and fees at U. Fla. is $212.71 per credit hour. Worked part-time and summers, of course. Current tuition at my local Community College in Maryland is $144 per semester hour.
If your family earn less than 150000 then 93% of the total cost to attend brown is no cost to you
There is one person who is the reason that tuition and expenses at a university / college went out of control. That person is a dem, named clinton. Like lbj’s “great society” he framed something bad for the economy and society in general as a boon to young people and the disadvantaged. College as a “right” or at the very least an option. Once he made federal funds available the schools did the normal thing for anyone / anything introduced to the federal feed trough. They made sure to raise prices to all the market could bear and then some.
When I went to college starting in 71 tuition for a 12 to 15 credit hours was $110 a semester. Since the profs all wrote their text books then required new versions every year, books went for $50 to $65 a semester. My last semester, tuition went up to $150 after staying at $125 for 2 years. I had a scholarship and grant for the first 2 years. After that I had $95 a month during school months from ROTC and a job that paid $270 a month to live on and go to school.
Barely graduated HS and served 20 years in the Corps from 97-2017. Uncle Sugar paid my for Associates, Bachelors, AND Masters. Never got an enlistment/reenlistment bonus….my bonus was continued employment and free education. Worked the AA/BA through tuition assistance and the Masters through a combo of TA/GI Bill. All told I did the math and it cost the government almost 30K for all 3 degrees and I came out of pocket MAYBE a grand total (some books, graduation fees, diploma fees) over the course of my 11 years of education.
Half the time unless I pass my degrees hanging on the wall, I forget I have them. They got me in the door for government employment but im just marking time until I hit 20 for my second pension and retire for GOOD at age 58 with Corps retirement, VA, and a state pension…..if I cant live off that along with a 401K and SS at 62…I made some piss poor decisions in life.