Trump-order critics include sex-assault prevention group in state

A statewide sexual assault prevention organization signed on to an October letter condemning an order by President Donald Trump that seeks to prohibit workforce training that involves race or sex “scapegoating.”

Trump’s order was announced in September and directly applies to federal contractors, a lengthy list that includes colleges and universities, according to the American Council on Education. The order also states that federal grant funds should not be used to promote “race or sex stereotyping or scapegoating.”

Examples of prohibited training listed in Executive Order 13950 include teaching that a person “by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”

The Arkansas Coalition Against Sexual Assault and 120 other organizations from around the country signed on to an Oct. 7 letter criticizing the Trump administration for issuing a “burdensome and divisive executive order, seeking to broadly curtail and deter diversity, equity, and inclusion training efforts by government agencies, federal contractors and sub-contractors, federal grantees, and the U.S. military.”

But while there have been reports in other states about canceled training or initiatives because of the order, the Arkansas group’s executive director said it has not yet been directly affected by it. Another group in the state offering training on diversity — the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s IDEALS Institute — has not been significantly affected by the order, said Elecia Smith, the institute’s executive director.

Monie Johnson, executive director of the Arkansas Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said that “we are not under

those restrictions as of yet” because the group’s current federal funds were first allocated by the government in 2018.

“It has not affected the type of training we do as of yet,” said Johnson.

The order states that it is effective “immediately,” but also that it applies to government contracts when entered into 60 days after the order’s date of Sept. 22.

Johnson said the organization, which also advocates for the rights of survivors of sexual violence, typically provides training to law enforcement agencies, rape crisis centers and campuses with workers who respond to student complaints of sexual harassment and sexual assault.

She said certain marginalized communities are at a heightened risk when it comes to sexual assault.

“Those are topics that we need to talk about to help people understand why certain people experience sexual violence,” Johnson said.

Training offered by the coalition refers to concepts such as white privilege, Johnson said.

“If we can’t talk about and can’t help people to see that it’s not something they are doing, but something they are experiencing as well because they live in this country, then it’s hard for people to recognize they have those biases that contribute to sexual violence in the first place,” Johnson said.

An example is if a victim walks into a police station to report a crime, Johnson said.

“Depending on what they look like, what they’re wearing, how they’re acting and the things they’re saying, the first person they talk to — because of the environment they live in, the experience they have in the world — will judge them as to whether they believe them or not, and that’s implicit bias,” Johnson said.

While outspoken in opposition to the executive order, Johnson said she thinks it will not ultimately have a lasting effect.

President-elect Joe Biden takes office next month, and “we feel like [the order] will be reversed,” Johnson said.

UA IDEALS INSTITUTE

The federal Department of Labor’s website says that implicit bias or unconscious bias training “is not prohibited if it is designed to inform workers, or foster discussion, about pre-conceptions, opinions, or stereotypes that people — regardless of their race or sex — may have regarding people who are different.”

Trump’s order states that the federal government “is, and must always be, committed to the fair and equal treatment of all individuals before the law,” but that the type of training the order seeks to prohibit “perpetuates racial stereotypes and division and can use subtle coercive pressure to ensure conformity of viewpoint.”

“Such ideas may be fashionable in the academy, but they have no place in programs and activities supported by Federal taxpayer dollars,” the executive order states.

Pushback against the Trump order has come from educational organizations including the American Council on Education, which in an October letter asking for the withdrawal of the ordersaid it is “creating concern, confusion, and uncertainty.” Other large education groups, including the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, also signed on to the letter.

Chuck Welch, president of the Arkansas State University System, is chairman of the board of directors of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

The University of Arkansas has published on its website guidelines to the campus for complying with the order. The university’s guidelines note that the executive order “does not address classroom instruction or programs created and offered solely for students.”

UA spokesman Mark Rushing said no training for employees has been canceled because of the order.

Last year, UA created the IDEALS Institute, a name that comes from the words inclusion, diversity, equity, access, leadership and strategic supports. The institute offers diversity, equity and inclusion training both internally to the university and also to outside clients.

Smith, IDEALS Institute director, said in an email that the order “has not significantly impacted the efforts of the IDEALS Institute.”

The center has consulted the university’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Compliance as well as university attorneys “to help ensure that our workplace training, discussions, workshops and programming are conducted in a manner that is consistent with the Executive Order,” Smith said.

The institute’s “trainings and workshops foster awareness of concepts related to diversity, equity and inclusion while enabling a space for diverse perspectives and driving collaboration and innovation,” Smith said.

Despite the pandemic, the institute has kept busy in recent weeks, including providing virtual training for the Westark Area Council Boy Scouts of America.

“The training was a good training,” Chris Daughtrey, executive director of the scouting group, said in an email. “The focus of the training from our perspective was to help our volunteer Executive Board establish a baseline on where they stood on diversity so they could give direction to our other volunteers working with our local Scouting programs. That goal was accomplished.”

Daughtrey said the Trump executive order never came up in conversations with the institute. Records released by the university show the agreement with the scouting group was that training would cost the scouting group up to $4,050. Daughtrey said in an email that the billing had not yet been finalized.

“Those are topics that we need to talk about to help people understand why certain people experience sexual violence.” — Monie Johnson, Arkansas Coalition Against Sexual Assault