Maybe it was Guy Bailey’s linguistics background that enabled him to communicate so effectively in Kansas City.
The departing chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City brought peace to a troubled campus and won the respect of the community.
The announcement that he is leaving to become president of Texas Tech University is understandably being greeted with regret and some degree of trepidation in Kansas City. Bailey’s productive three-year stint at UMKC hasn’t erased the memory of the turmoil that preceded him.
Bailey arrived to find the faculty embittered from battles with his predecessor, Martha Gilliland. Infighting marked the student government. Civic leaders were questioning UMKC’s potential to fulfill the role of a major university.
All that was happening against a backdrop of budget cuts and unreliable state support for Missouri’s public universities.
Bailey, a linguistics scholar, quickly earned the respect of faculty and students. He demonstrated that it’s possible to deal constructively with civic and business leaders without alienating the campus.
He also showed that a university can grow, even with lackluster state support. Bailey encouraged public-private partnerships that enabled work to begin on, among other things, new student housing for the main and Hospital Hill campuses.
“There is the sense that we can take control of our own destiny,” said Gary Ebersole, chairman of the UMKC Faculty Senate.
Bailey’s job was made easier by a consensus regarding his appointment. Faculty, student and community representatives participated in an extensive search and evaluation process before Elson Floyd, then the president of the University of Missouri system, made the final choice. That process ought to provide a model for Gary Forsee, who has replaced Floyd as the system president.
Forsee, a former Sprint chief executive, came to university administration from a non-traditional background. He recently received a vote of confidence from the Board of Curators.
But a non-traditional leader would be less likely to fit in a campus setting, where the top campus administrator must have the respect of the academic community.
Bailey showed that scholars can also be diplomats and have good business sense. Those strengths should serve as requirements in the search for UMKC’s next chancellor.
