Thousands of administrative employees at Brown University woke up this spring to an email with pointed Elon Musk-like questions about their job responsibilities.

Please describe your role, it asked. What tasks have you performed in the past week? How would Brown students be affected if your job didn’t exist?

The March 18 email was from a sophomore, Alex Shieh, who explained that the responses would be included in a story for The Brown Spectator, a new, as yet unpublished conservative newspaper on campus.

His questions were undoubtedly sensitive for elite universities like Brown, where the cost of tuition, housing and other fees has risen to $93,000. Critics, including President Trump, accuse the schools of padding their budgets with redundant layers of deans and associate deans, bloated diversity programs and niche academic divisions.

Many recipients of the email, including those in the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, were not amused — no doubt aware that Mr. Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency was ripping like a hacksaw through the federal bureaucracy, had asked government employees similar kinds of questions.

Two days later, Brown notified Mr. Shieh that he was under investigation for possible violations of the university’s code of student conduct, including its prohibitions on invasion of privacy, misrepresentation and emotional or psychological harm.