Sole Finalist Named for Texas Tech University President

Guy Bailey has been named the sole finalist for the position of president of Texas Tech University after a meeting of the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents on July 2. State law requires 21 days must pass before final action is taken. Bailey currently is chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), a position he has held since Jan. 1, 2006, and one that is equivalent to president at Texas universities. He previously served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) from 1999 through 2005. “Texas Tech University is a unique and special place,” Bailey said. “It has one of the brightest futures in American higher education. I am honored to have been selected as sole finalist for its presidency and consider it a privilege to be a part of that future.” Kent Hance, chancellor of the Texas Tech University System, chose Bailey for the job from a group of candidates presented to him by the President Search Committee. “Guy Bailey has an impressive record of accomplishment,” Hance said. “At UTSA, Dr. Bailey was able to double external funding for research while increasing the school’s enrollment by more than 40 percent. I believe he’s the right person to lead Texas Tech University.” Bailey counts among his major accomplishments at UMKC the completion of a $200 million capital campaign. He also created $10 million in administrative savings that was put into the core academic mission of the university, including, raising salaries to attract and retain faculty. During his tenure about $175 million in new construction was approved using primarily public/private funding partnerships. Bailey holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Alabama and a doctorate in English linguistics from the University of Tennessee. He is the author of about 100 books and articles. Bailey succeeds Jon Whitmore who is leaving the university to become president of San Jose State University on Aug. 1. Whitmore became Texas Tech president in September 2003.

Brief Biography

Guy Bailey was named Chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City on July 25, 2005; his term as Chancellor began January 1, 2006. Prior to assuming the Chancellorship, he served as Provost and Executive Vice President at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Before his appointment as Provost in 1999, he served as Associate Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies at UTSA, as Dean of Liberal Arts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and as Chair of the English Departments at the University of Memphis and Oklahoma State University. Before becoming an administrator, he taught at Texas A&M and Emory Universities. Since Bailey’s arrival, UMKC finished its $200 million capital campaign, created $10 million in administrative savings, and is implementing public/private partnerships to construct new facilities needed to advance the academic mission of the university. During his tenure at UTSA, the university added 15 new doctoral programs, more than doubled its external funding for research, saw its total enrollment grow by more than 40% and saw its graduate enrollment grow by almost 50%. He continues to do research on language variation and change, with special emphasis on the English of Texas and the American South, and in computational linguistics. The research on Texas English has been featured on National Public Radio, CNN Headline News, BBC Radio, and in the New York Times,Texas Monthly and the San Antonio Express News. Since 1984 he has brought almost a million dollars in external funding for his research. Full Curriculum Vitae