Blowup@Brown: University Threatens Student Over Accurate Claim About Trump Funding Freeze

Trump admin plans to cancel $510 million funding over Ivy League school’s DEI policies, the White House confirmed

Brown University is threatening disciplinary action against a student for saying that the Trump administration plans to pull $510 million in federal funding over the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies—a move confirmed by White House officials.

Brown’s executive vice president for planning and policy, Russell Carey, on Sunday sent a letter to sophomore Alex Shieh accusing him of “publishing and promoting false information” on his website Bloat@Brown. Shieh’s site on Friday updated its homepage with a banner that reads “Meet the DEl Bureaucrats Who Lost Brown University $510 Million in Federal Funds.” Carey wrote that the university had not received any federal notice of lost funding over its DEI hires.

One day before Shieh made the claim, though, Trump administration officials confirmed plans to freeze $510 million in grants to Brown over its DEI initiatives and response to campus anti-Semitism, CNN and the Daily Caller reported. The proposed funding pause was also reported Thursday by the New York Times and the Associated Press, which attributed the freeze to the Trump administration’s stand against campus anti-Semitism.

Brown is the fifth Ivy League school to face funding cuts amid Trump’s crackdown on DEI and anti-Semitism on campus. The administration has already revoked hundreds of millions in federal funding from Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton University and is reviewing nearly $9 billion in contracts and grants at Harvard University.

Shieh first launched Bloat@Brown last month to expose redundant, “bullshit,” and “legally questionable” administrative jobs at Brown. The site includes the names of “49 Brown University employees” flagged for “potentially holding illegal DEI roles.”

Brown employs around 3,800 non-faculty staffers—more than 1 for every 2 undergraduate students—and reported a $42 million budget deficit in 2024. The figure is expected to grow to $46 million this year, the Washington Free Beacon reported Friday.