Terri Watson resigned as NOLS President, and Sandy Colhoun has become interim president. Clearly NOLS is at an inflection point, and current events do not reflect "business as usual.” An important question to ask is "what will be the interim president's role: change agent or caretaker?"
As a change agent, Sandy would be given the responsibility to make changes as needed in advance of a new NOLS President coming on board. As a caretaker, he would initiate no significant changes during the time it takes to select a new President.
The success of the interim president hinges upon matching the role to whether urgent change is needed. A caretaker role would work as long as there are no immediate issues to be addressed beyond finding a new president. However, we are concerned that at least one issue - NOLS DEI implementation - requires the interim president to be a change agent. The way NOLS is implementing DEI is undermining the school's educational foundation and putting students at risk with undue emphasis on DEI topics and instructor diversity compared to skills competency. Sandy needs to align DEI implementation with the school’s mission; waiting as a caretaker will only aggravate the situation. The Board can and should give the interim president guidance by addressing our 4 basic questions about NOLS DEI implementation. We hope that in our April Newsletter, we will know more about what steps, and how fast the steps, the school is taking to put NOLS on solid footing.
How is our petition going?
In the first month, dozens of NOLSies have signed our petition – a good start. Our goal is to have hundreds join us. To help do this, please forward this newsletter to your NOLSie friends and point out the “SIGN OUR PETITION” below, which will take them to our web site where they can sign our petition and become a subscriber.
IMPORTANT MARCH 2023 DATE
NOLS is scheduling a ZOOM call for NOLS Advisory Council members on March 23rd. They plan to talk through their transition plan, the upcoming strategic planning process, and answer any questions. On the NOLS leadership side, the following will be on the call: · Sandy Colhoun, NOLS Vice President (and incoming interim President) · Jon Ferlise, Chief Financial Officer · Heather Wisniewski, Chief Advancement Officer · John Babcock, NOLS Board member, chair of the Advancement committee · Auny Abegglen, NOLS AC Co-Chair, Board member
If you have been invited to participate on this ZOOM call,
please join the call and make sure the following questions are covered:
Who will be on the NOLS President selection committee?
When will this selection committee be formed?
What will be the charter/guidance to identify highly qualified candidates?
Who will review the draft charter before it becomes a working document?
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