Risk Management

To:             NOLS Board of Trustees

 

From:       NOLS Self-Assembly

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Date:       July 19, 2023

 

Subject:  Risk Management

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Our starting point: active followership and expedition behavior.    In the spirit of active followership, as taught in the NOLS Leadership Curriculum, we are writing to express our observations about how NOLS’ emphasis on diversity and social justice issues, coupled with a focus on differences among individuals, may have affected faculty competence in the field. Our observations are just that – observations of current and former NOLS faculty and staff, former Advisory Council Members and NOLS Trustees, including a Risk Committee Chair.   

 

NOLS interim president recently said, “NOLS fundamentals have never been stronger.” We are not as certain. Given what we have learned about faculty selection and training and from conversations with current NOLS employees, we are obligated to speak up about our concerns regarding risk management.

 

NOLS has taught us to engage in active followership and to practice expedition behavior – which requires both support and challenge of leadership. While we support the goal of encouraging diversity, we challenge how diversity is being implemented.

 

We recognize that NOLS Trustees assume a fiduciary duty and take responsibility for NOLS policies and their effect. In this light, Trustees need to evaluate our observations thoroughly and, if necessary, act to avert a serious injury or fatality that may be attributable to a lack of field faculty competence.

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NOLS’ stated diversity goal.    For at least the past 15 years, NOLS has encouraged diversity while maintaining the competence and quality of its faculty – a goal we support. What have been the results? We have spoken with current faculty and employees about this. They asked not to be named since they were worried there would be retribution (as has happened in the past) for openly straying from the Executive Team’s statements.

 

Our takeaway from these conversations and from our own observations is that over the past five years, NOLS has put undue emphasis on social justice issues and differences among individuals. As a consequence, NOLS may have traded off competence and safety at the faculty level.

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Social justice issues are given high value.   The NOLS Instructor Course application requires an applicant to describe their ‘social justice’ credentials on the first page of the application. We believe that outdoor experience, evidence of ethical and responsible behavior, and team effectiveness need to be given priority on the NOLS Instructor Course application.

 

Differences among individuals are emphasized.   If an applicant is approved and takes a NOLS Instructor Course, they will find that NOLS emphasizes differences among individuals. Topics on the Instructor Course range from how to identify microaggressions to discussing how an emotional support stuffed animal could be part of your gear to “exploring the language of love.” NOLS Faculty Summit agendas cover such topics as Gender Science for Outdoors-people, Breaking Your Habits of Implicit Bias, and Let Brown and Black Kids Play.

 

Are students being put at increased risk on NOLS expedition courses?    Is excessive time being given on the Instructor Course to explore social justice issues and expound on individual differences?

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Is less time available to teach risk management, wilderness skills, evacuation protocols, leadership paradigms and camping routines, not to mention wilderness-related topics such as field biology, glaciology, and our ecosystem impact?

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Are NOLS faculty being trained to consistently exhibit the knowledge, behavior and skills needed for them to embody NOLS’ mission as the leading source and teacher of wilderness skills and leadership?

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For students to be safe and survive, do NOLS instructors have the requisite ability to evaluate daily uncertainty and manage risk while leading students in the wilderness for weeks at a time?

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NOLS Board of Trustees has a Fiduciary Duty.   It is in the best interest of NOLS as an outdoor education school for the NOLS Board of Trustees to thoroughly re-evaluate how faculty are  being being recruited, trained and certified and take appropriate action as necessary to ensure faculty competence.

 

NOLS Self-Assembly