Former Brown student blames spending priorities for security gaps in campus shooting case
Friend of Ella Cook says Brown University's administration growth and large endowment have prioritized other spending over campus safety, as investigations and congressional scrutiny unfolds.
Shieh, who served as publisher for Brown’s student-run newspaper, the Brown Spectator, said his efforts to expose what he described as bloated administrative spending met resistance from faculty and administrators. He recalled sending a survey to administrators asking them to detail their jobs after being inspired by President Donald Trump’s DOGE, but said the project drew opposition. He has argued that the school’s administration has grown far beyond what is necessary for a campus of Brown’s size. "There are about 4,000 administrators at a school of about 11,000 students," Shieh said. "And this growth and ballooning in the number of staff administrators is what's been leading to the cost of tuition rising precipitously all across the country, but particularly at a school like Brown University." Brown’s handling of Shieh’s reporting drew scrutiny and contributed to broader debate about spending at elite institutions. The university pursued disciplinary action against Shieh, accusing him of causing emotional and psychological harm, invading privacy, misrepresenting the university, and violating operational rules. Brown ultimately dropped all charges against him, but the episode helped propel a House Judiciary Committee examination of free speech and spending at Ivy League schools.
In the days that followed, authorities say a homeless man living on Brown’s campus became a key witness to the investigation. He provided investigators with information about interactions with Claudio Neves-Valente, the man authorities say killed Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov before driving to Brookline, Massachusetts, where he killed MIT nuclear physicist Nuno Loureiro two days later before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a storage shed in Salem, New Hampshire.
The timeline at Brown remains a focal point for critics who question whether campus security was adequately funded and maintained. Officials have noted that modern security measures—such as cameras and real-time monitoring—could play a role in identifying and stopping threats before they escalate, though investigators have not drawn firm conclusions about how security gaps may have affected the outcomes in these incidents. Shieh’s reporting and the ensuing political attention underscored broader concerns about resource allocation at elite universities, especially where tuition and endowment levels dwarf the needs of day-to-day campus safety.
The University’s response to Shieh’s findings helped spur the June House Judiciary Committee hearing on free speech and spending at Ivy League schools, where Shieh testified as a witness amid questions about how institutions balance Academic priorities, student welfare, and administrative growth. While the investigation into the Brown and MIT shootings continues, officials stress that the focus remains on prevention, response, and accountability across campuses with similar profiles.
As the national conversation on campus safety and funding intensifies, Brown and other universities face renewed scrutiny over how resources are allocated, how security upgrades are prioritized, and how institutions respond to criticism from students, faculty, and lawmakers alike. The events in Providence and Cambridge, and the sequence of incidents that followed, have sharpened attention on how big-endowment universities translate wealth into measurable safety and everyday student life.