UMKC chancellor in line to be president of Texas Tech

LUBBOCK, Texas — The chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City was named Wednesday as the sole finalist to become president of Texas Tech University.

Guy Bailey, a former provost and executive vice president at the University of Texas-San Antonio, will be offered the job after a state-required waiting period of 21 days. Regents voted unanimously for Bailey.

At UMKC, which Bailey has led since 2006, the 57-year-old completed a $200 million capital campaign and saved the school $10 million in administrative costs that in part went to raise salaries to attract and retain faculty.

He also increased enrollment by 40 percent. Kent Hance, Tech’s chancellor, has said he wants to grow the school’s enrollment from 28,000 to 40,000 by 2020.

Hance said in a statement that Bailey’s fundraising skills played a big role in the decision.

“Guy Bailey has an impressive record of accomplishment,” Hance said. “I believe he’s the right person to lead Texas Tech University.”

Bailey was at UTSA from 1999 to 2005. His wife, Jan Tillery-Bailey, is a Tech graduate who grew up in Lubbock.

Tech “has one of the brightest futures in American higher education,” Bailey said in a statement. “I am honored to have been selected as sole finalist for its presidency and would consider it a privilege to be a part of that future.”

Bailey received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Alabama and his doctorate in English linguistics from the University of Tennessee.

He continues to research language variation and change, with special emphasis on the English of Texas and the American South.

Before becoming UTSA’s provost, Bailey was associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies there.

He served as dean of liberal arts at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and chaired the English departments at the University of Memphis and Oklahoma State University.

Before becoming an administrator, Bailey taught at Texas A&M and Emory.

He succeeds Jon Whitmore, who is leaving the university to become president of San Jose State University on Aug. 1. Whitmore became Tech president in September 2003.