City College wrongly interpreted its own guidelines in dismissing an English as a Second Language professor, according to a ruling by a neutral arbitrator.
The administration “misapplied its own policies and procedures concerning the evaluation of probationary faculty” when they informed Paul McGarry, a tenure-track instructor, that they would not renew his probationary contract, said Edna Francis, an attorney from the Los Angeles area. The ruling also recommended that McGarry be reinstated into his position as an instructor in the English as a Second Language department.
City College Superintendent-President John Romo declined to comment on the ruling, saying he is not legally allowed to speak about personnel matters.
The decision comes as a victory for students and faculty members who felt McGarry was unfairly targeted and singled-out for moonlighting, or accepting off-campus employment.
“The biggest rub is that is there are people on this campus who work and continue to work [off-campus jobs] and have not been called or have their positions [off-campus jobs] and have not been called or have their positions threatened,” said Elida Moreno, an ESL instructor who was part of the 2003 committee that evaluated McGarry’s performance.
City College District policy state “No faculty member will engage in outside employment which will interfere with the optimum performance of his/her assignment.”
City College’s previous evaluation committee said McGarry is “satisfactory with respect to every single criterion that the District uses to evaluate its faculty members.” A “satisfactory” is the highest rating level an instructor can be given in evaluation reports. The arbitrator’s ruling agreed with the committee.
Romo informed McGarry of his dismissal in a letter. In the letter, Romo said, “The reason for this action is that you have failed to complete your probationary period satisfactorily.”
“If we revise any policy or procedure, it won’t be because of the ruling,” Romo said. He stressed that many faculty members work off-campus jobs, such as positions at UCSB and even playwriting. Full-time faculty, he said, may not work full-time jobs elsewhere.