First you need to pass a social justice litmus test
Update We want to thank NOLS interim President Sandy Calhoun and NOLS Board Chair Stuart Harris for meeting with us on May 1, 2023 via a ZOOM call to discuss how we can best work together. From NOLS Self-Assembly were Bob Schoultz, Kurt Petersen, Bill Murdock, John Whisnant and John Robinson.
Meeting Summary We all want NOLS to succeed. Sandy emphasized that fund raising is paramount and that any change to NOLS culture can happen in due course once the school is back on a solid financial foundation. In comparison, we believe that NOLS needs to address its cultural issues concurrently with its fund raising activities and strategic planning if those efforts are to succeed.
Our April newsletter, What makes NOLS NOLS?, did get the attention of NOLS senior management. Unfortunately, instead of it being the start of an open discussion, we were summarily told that “when hiring, NOLS does not use a litmus test to screen only for applicants who have taken a NOLS course.”
However, NOLS does apply a litmus test for screening one important applicant group - future NOLS instructors. The test? The NOLS Instructor Course application, which asks applicants to prove their social justice worthiness.
From the current online IC application:
“At NOLS, we place a high value on creating inclusive, equitable learning and working environments for our students, faculty and staff. Please respond to the following: a. How have you contributed to a culture of equity and inclusion in past work environments? b. As a NOLS instructor you will have to support students and instructors with vastly different backgrounds and identities than your own. How will you be aware of your identity, culture, and experiences with others when making decisions?”
A previous version used oppressed/oppressor language:
“At NOLS we place a high value on creating an equitable and inclusive learning environment for students, faculty and staff. Please respond to both of the following questions: 1. In what ways can outdoor education serve to dismantle systems of oppression? 2. How have systems of oppression shaped your personal and professional experience in the outdoors and in outdoor education?”
“How have you contributed to a culture of equity and inclusion?” is deliberately toned down compared to “In what ways can outdoor education serve to dismantle systems of oppression?” A step in the right direction. The next step? NOLS needs to remove a litmus test based on social justice issues that applicants must pass in order to be future NOLS instructors.
NOLS instructors are the keystone of any plan to right the school. How many qualified IC applicants are turned off and turn away from NOLS because of the application's first page emphasis on social justice worthiness over their passion for leading people and teaching wilderness skills?
The role of Active Followership and the principles of Expedition Behavior, both taught in the Expedition Faculty Instructor Course, embody Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Why isolate and redefine these values as social justice issues?
NOTE: NOLS' Mission and Expedition Behavior are not once mentioned in the IC Application or in the accompanying 18 page FAQ for NOLS IC Applicants - omissions that boggle the mind of anyone who knows What Makes NOLS NOLS.
Please forward this newsletter to other NOLSies so that they can join us to petition the NOLS Board to answer 4 basic questions about NOLS' DEI implementation.
NOLS Self-Assembly
Our objective is to serve as a link between NOLS and the greater NOLS community for an open discussion about how NOLS is staying true to its mission and the practice of expedition behavior while implementing a DEI initiative, fundraising $10,000,000 to cover operating losses and searching for a new president while creating a new strategic plan.