College presidents cannot prevent CUNY library faculty from taking professional leave, according to a ruling issued April 11.

Wambui Mbugwa, a professor in the library department at BMCC, had requested four weeks of professional reassignment leave for a July 2005 research project. In February 2005, her request was approved by the personnel and budget committee (P&B) of both her department and the college as a whole – which is all that the union contract requires.

But in June 2005, the college’s lawyer argued that the president’s approval was also needed, even if this was not spelled out in the contract – and BMCC President Antonio Perez refused to give his OK. Mbugwa, who has worked at BMCC since 1970, filed a grievance and the issue went to arbitration.

Management argued that the president’s approval was required for any and all actions by a college-wide P&B, regardless of the contract’s exact language. It cited two policy statements by the CUNY Board of Trustees from the 1970s – for example, a 1971 statement that “the president has the affirmative responsibility for passing on all faculty personnel actions….”

But arbitrator Ralph Berger concluded that “the policies cited by the employer cannot take precedence over clear and unambiguous contract language.” In essence, Berger wrote, “the employer is asking the arbitrator to read into the contract something that is not there.”

The contract “clearly sets forth an approval procedure to be followed when Librarians request reassignment leave,” Berger concluded. “It does not require approval by the president.” Berger ordered that Mbugwa’s leave be granted in the summer of 2008.

Mbugwa plans to interview women in Kenya who were involved in the anti-colonial struggle. This oral history project is part of her “lifelong scholarship on African women,” Charny said, and is an example of how the contract can protect faculty members’ ability to carry out important research. “This part of the contract can keep scholarship from being stifled by arbitrary decisions.”