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What Is Our DEI Implementation Assessment Report?
Published in December 2022, our report examines how NOLS’ DEI implementation is in conflict with NOLS’ Articles of Incorporation, its Mission Statement and practice of Expedition Behavior. We want the school to address our concerns and consider recommendations to realign its DEI efforts in order to ensure NOLS’ continued success.
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NOLS 1965 Articles of Incorporation prohibit propaganda.
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NOLS-implemented DEI violates this admonition.
Mission Statement
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NOLS Mission Statement emphasizes teaching wilderness skills and leadership.
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NOLS-implemented DEI weakens the Mission and compromises risk management.
Expedition Behavior
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Expedition Behavior puts the group first.
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NOLS-implemented DEI focuses on individual differences.
Expedition Behavior
A fundamental NOLS education tenet supporting the NOLS Mission is Expedition Behavior. Paul Petzoldt’s approach to team dynamics is the basis for EB. He realized that to become an effective leader and to be a contributing member of a group facing daily adversity and uncertainty, individual differences are unimportant. The starting point is not to emphasize differences based on religious beliefs, politics, race, money, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. What matters most is how each person’s actions, attitude and character contribute every day to the group’s success.
Learning how to deal in real time with group dynamics of students from different backgrounds is the foundation for understanding and respecting every team member. EB lessons learned in the wilderness – how to balance each person’s individual identity with the group’s own identity in order to achieve success – can be life-changing and taken back into society to promote and achieve a greater community good. It can even become a mantra when faced with a difficult situation – “Time to practice good EB.”
Please read the the Expedition Behavior/Inclusivity section of our report to learn about how far some NOLS faculty have departed from encouraging a shared EB experience to emphasizing individual differences with a special focus on white males.
NOLS Cultural Humility Training
NOLS DE&I Community Commitments “In order to bring this purpose to life, NOLS will engage all members of our employee community in Cultural Humility Training and then foster spaces where the work required to create and maintain equitable and inclusive work and learning environments may occur.”
Intended Consequences Cultural Humility Training can be a valuable tool for promoting understanding and respect for different cultures and backgrounds. It can help individuals recognize and challenge their own biases and assumptions, and develop the skills to effectively communicate and work with people from diverse backgrounds. It can also help organizations create a more inclusive and equitable environment for all members. Additionally, it is important to have a well-designed, culturally responsive, and inclusive curriculum and program, led by well-trained facilitators and professionals with lived experiences. This can ensure that the training is effective and that the right messages are being conveyed. Source: ChatGPT response to question "Is Cultural Humility Training a good thing?”
Unintended Consequences The crux is when a portion of NOLS faculty who are too young to have significant lived experience take their training into the wilderness and lead DEI and CHT discussions with students by themselves on their own – regardless of whether or not this is part of the NOLS curriculum. Then personal opinion and cultural bias replace lived experience and knowledge – with harmful results.
Impact on NOLS Mission Discussions can quickly become acrimonious, and the ensuing debate can widen to include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ukraine, abortion rights, January 6th insurrection, climate change, etc. The group splits into factions, and the course faculty cannot achieve NOLS’ Mission.
NOLS Mission Failure Instead of a positive life-changing NOLS experience in the wilderness, students experience psychological distress on courses when inexperienced NOLS faculty let DEI and CHT discussions get out of hand. Would anyone want to be the boy who has dual Israel/US citizenship and be told that Israel is oppressing Palestinians? Would anyone want their course evaluation grade to be lowered as a result of being on the wrong side of a DEI discussion with an instructor? This is not hypothetical; this is happening now.
The NOLS Board needs to address who is delivering this training to NOLS students and if it has been made part of the NOLS curriculum.
policing trigger words at NOLS
NOLS DE&I Community Commitments, in its Boundaries Overview, makes clear that “weaponizing words by using them to label or attack someone’s identity” is ‘OUT’. What is left unexplained is which words are weaponizing words and what is harmful behavior relative to DEI at NOLS.
The ‘How We Engage’ section of Commitments explains “We can learn from stories and examples.” We hope this example, an exchange between a NOLS course leader and an HR assistant, will prompt the NOLS Board to answer one of our basic questions: who at NOLS decides what are weaponizing words and harmful behavior?
The following is a first person account of a discussion between a NOLS Course Leader and a NOLS HR assistant about who decides what is a weaponizing word.
Word Choice During my conversation with a NOLS HR assistant about language and its impacts, I asked who at NOLS determines whether or not a word or phrase is harmful. To give a preposterous example, I asked if saying “burning beans smell bad”, which might be said during a cooking class on an expedition, would be interpreted as harmful. Instead of saying my question was a ridiculous example of what might be construed as harmful, the HR person thought for a moment and to my amazement answered "yes, burning beans smell bad is a micro-aggression."
Word Boundary I asked her to please explain her reasoning, and she said: "because the word 'beaner' is an epithet for LatinX people, and because LatinX people are subjected to higher rates of violence, and because they might get sunburned while attempting to immigrate to America through the deserts south of the border, and because they might have increased body odor during their trek through the desert, the statement 'burning beans smell bad' should be avoided as it might trigger an emotional response from under-privileged or under-represented LatinX students or coworkers who are either immigrants themselves or descendants of immigrants."
Word Lesson Although the HR person’s thoughtful and layered logic was impressive, this was logic brought to an absurd conclusion. At NOLS, any word can be a harmful word depending on subjective lived experience. As soon as a microaggression is identified, it is subject to being policed, controlled, used as the basis for “focused feedback” and must be avoided at all costs. I believe that it was at this point when any doubts I may have had regarding my decision to resign from NOLS were laid to rest.
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