The world is becoming crazy with each passing day. Recently, a student at Brown University in the US used artificial intelligence (AI) to email 3,805 administrators/bureaucrats (not teaching faculty) of Brown University, asking about the work they perform. The student, Alex Sheikh, inspired by DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), devised a method to scrape data from the internet and feed it into AI. He compiled a public contact dataset and batch-emailed all 3,805 administrators. According to him, hardly 20 people responded, and most of them were infuriated at Alex for asking a simple question. Shortly, a memo was also issued to employees, ordering them not to respond to Alex’s email.
For Alex, this was a journalistic enquiry intended to investigate the state of affairs prevalent at Brown University, which does not seem to be too great. He has stated that the tuition fee at Brown University is more than 90,000 dollars annually, and despite paying such exorbitant sums of money, students like Alex are constrained to work in rooms that flood whenever it rains, and even the professors complain that they are underpaid. He was genuinely concerned as to where all the money is going and why the number of administrators is close to twice the number of faculty at Brown University.
But instead of taking constructive criticism in a positive manner, it seems that efforts are being made to stifle Alex’s voice, as according to him, Brown University is now investigating him for “emotional/psychological harm,” “misrepresentation,” “invasion of privacy,” and “violation of operational rules.”
This may seem like a small affair to many, but to me, it is a matter of great concern, as it reflects the state of educational affairs prevalent in the US. Everyone always thought that American universities are the best in the world and their students are given immense academic freedom to innovate and advance the needs of society. It is clearly not the case, and American universities are suffering from the same bureaucratic rot that is prevalent in the educational systems of other countries.
If American universities want the best talent from all over the world, they must start taking the valid concerns of students like Alex Sheikh seriously; otherwise, the talented lot has already started to look for other options, like China.
Pride is one of the biggest reasons for the downfall of any civilization. The American civilization, as great as it is, must remove the fake pride and acknowledge its shortcomings.