Man of letters also speaks everyman lingo

U-M prof's heart is vested in WCC
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
BY JANET MILLER
News Staff Reporter

RICHARD BAILEY, a noted University of Michigan English professor with an Ivy League education, has a foot in the ivory tower world of high-brow literature and language.

He's an expert on the history of language, from its usage to its pronunciation. He studies English from dictionaries to dialects. He's involved in lofty pursuits, such as modernizing a 16th century diary of a London merchant, but he's also interested in language trends, such as the Valley Girl-esque habit of inserting "like" into conversation.

Bailey's other foot is firmly planted at Washtenaw Community College, an everyman college with an open-door policy where students embark on technical and career education programs from accounting to welding. For 30 years he has served on the WCC Board of Trustees, and his work there is single-handedly credited with bringing labor peace to the school that has lasted more than 15 years. "His heart and his soul are really here," said WCC President Larry Whitworth. "His head is over there, at the U-M. That's his job, who he is intellectually. (But) he is unique in that he so clearly lives in two different worlds. And he seems to get more out of what he does here than anyone else."

In the three decades he has been associated with WCC, Bailey has watched the college grow from a small campus with portable classrooms in the middle of an apple orchard to a respected institution sandwiched between two large universities - U-M and Eastern Michigan University.

WCC had been operating just eight years when Bailey was elected to the Board of Trustees. It was before the days of the Open Meetings Act and he first ran on the issue of having board meetings more open to the public.
He first came to know about WCC in his work at U-M. Bailey was among a group of English faculty who wanted to make U-M accessible to a wider group of students.
"We felt the U-M belonged to the people of Michigan and ought to serve their interests," Bailey said. "We also felt it ought to serve the interests of people who never got near the place, who were paying a higher proportion of their income to support the university. We had poor people subsidizing rich people." The U-M English department created a program that brought Bailey to WCC. "I sat in one of the temporary classrooms where the wind was blowing every time someone walked in. But I thought what was going on was really exciting. It wasn't that the teaching was overwhelmingly wonderful, although it was fine. It was that the learning was overwhelmingly wonderful. ... I got the idea that maybe I could do something more."

There were only two permanent buildings on campus at the time and a scattering of temporary trailers. The Student Center Building was under construction. "We were walking around this huge building in hard hats," Bailey said. "But it wasn't about the buildings, it was about this terrific pioneering spirit, you had the sense of being a pioneer."

The college has grown from a $7 million budget when he first arrived to a nearly $75 million budget now. Most importantly, Bailey said, the college has adapted as the years have passed, adding classes such as a digital video program. "More than a quarter of the people enrolled at the college already have a bachelor's degree or higher. We're not talking about a few senior citizens. These are recent graduates."

Bailey has left a lasting mark on the college, said Dennis Bila, WCC math instructor who served as president of the faculty union for many years. Bila credits Bailey with bringing labor harmony to WCC. When it's time to discuss a new contract, just 90 minutes is historically needed to agree on a wage package, Bila said. After a faculty strike in 1987, Bailey, board chair at the time, asked administrators and faculty representatives to meet with him in Lansing, miles from campus and the contention. "He was direct and blunt, and he didn't take sides, but he told all of us we needed to come up with a better way of doing business," Bila said. "That was a crucial moment."
The following weekend, the two sides met in a Lansing hotel room and hammered out what became guiding principles for labor talks. Those principles are now part of the preamble of the union contract. Bailey's work on the WCC board continues, but this semester he is taking a break from U-M to work on two projects: A history of English in America and an electronic book, which will be available on the Web, that is a modernization of a diary written by Henry Machyn, a London merchant, between 1551 and 1563. Machyn offers a window on everyday life during the days of Edward VI, Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I.

In his personal life, Bailey is also busy. More than two years ago, the 64-year-old Bailey added something else to juggle with his work at WCC and U-M. He and his wife, Julia, adopted a daughter, Oceana, from China. Now 5, she just started kindergarten and provides the fodder for the many Oceana stories her adoring dad brings to any conversation.
The joy brought by Oceana contrasts with the tragedy Bailey endured in 1980 when his 19-year-old daughter, Eleanor, was brutally murdered.

Eleanor Bailey was a free-spirited teenager, a graduate of Community High School and eager to be on her own. She was driving a cab in Ann Arbor when she picked up a rider near a halfway house for former prisoners. The rider commandeered the car, forced Bailey's daughter to drive toward Pinckney and murdered her so that he could take the cab. The man was convicted of the crime once, a new trial was ordered, and he was convicted a second time.
It tested Bailey's stand against the death penalty. Before the tragedy, Bailey was against capital punishment. His daughter's death didn't change his mind. Recently, he wrote an article about the death penalty for a church publication.
"The consequences of Eleanor Bailey's death cannot be measured. Our family has been wounded, and the wound will never heal. I am glad, however, that we have only one death to mourn."

Janet Miller can be reached at jmiller@annarbornews.com or (734) 994-6827.

© 2004 Ann Arbor News. (Off the internet)

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