She also did a guest spot on @strictscrutiny.bsky.social a couple weeks ago where she talks about entrenchment / barriers / opportunities for de-Orbanization (and lessons in that for the US, esp re: courts)
benmiller314.bsky.social
@benmiller314.bsky.social
129 followers 84 following 24 posts
Assoc Prof of English/Composition at Pitt. Infrequent poster.
![I am an associate professor of English at an R1 university and director of our Composition program, which encompasses writing instruction and studies of literacy and rhetoric from first-year undergraduate general education requirements, through a major in public and professional writing, through doctoral research.
The Trump administration’s changes to longstanding federal grant procedures since 2024 – especially the cancelation and delay of many grants in the sciences – introduced considerable budget uncertainty that has already resulted in major harms across my university, including in my department. The proposed rule changes in OMB-2026-0034 would compound these problems by prioritizing short-term political goals above sustained, deep inquiry [§200.202, §200.205], by introducing additional sources of delay [§200.205], and by ensuring that any promise of funding could be broken at any time, without warning [§200.340]. It would also limit our ability to study how the harms of these changes are distributed [§200.218], an unreflective process at odds with what we might call Gold Standard Humanities.
In what follows, I first document the harms I have witnessed directly since the start of the second Trump administration, as a result of practices (including those carried out by DOGE) that would be codified by OMB-2026-0034. I then go into greater detail about the problems in the specific regulations mentioned above. But I urge OMB to withdraw this proposed rule in its entirety, as its means and ends run counter to its stated aims of improving transparency, reducing waste, ending discrimination, and serving the public.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fju2vsxeftih4csa4uwpfwey/bafkreieywkzaf5jcxny2opp5u54j45bk7gyl2w3blpj3a2xfgnf7ogmoam)
