James Bailey, left, signs the check to BGSU for $1,000,000 while his wife, Judy, center, and President Ribeau look on.

Scholarships, endowed professorship created
University celebrates $1 million gift from Bailey family

“Great students only succeed when we have great faculty,” President Sidney Ribeau told the audience gathered April 1 to mark the presentation of a major gift to the University. The $1 million provided by James L. and Judy Bailey of New Canaan, Conn., will go a long way toward providing for both, he said.

The couple’s gift will support mathematics education and scholarships. Their cash contribution of $500,000 will be split three ways, with $250,000 allocated to the creation of an endowed professorship in mathematics education in the College of Arts and Sciences; $125,000 for endowment of a scholarship for students in the College of Education and Human Development, and another $125,000 for an endowed scholarship for students in arts and sciences.

The remaining $500,000, a deferred gift through the Baileys’ estate, will benefit the same three areas at the same levels.

'The most important thing we do is hire the right people. When you have the right people, then the magic takes place.'—Sidney Ribeau

“Private gifts can make a tremendous difference in the lives of our students and our faculty,” said Development Director Marcia Latta, an associate vice president for University advancement.

Two students who are receiving scholarships provided by a previous Bailey family gift testified to the difference it has made in their lives. Alexis Kallas, a sophomore majoring in mathematics education from Silver Lake, Ohio, thanked her benefactors, as did Megan Gajewski, a sophomore from Stow, Ohio, majoring in graphic design, who said that the Bailey scholarship “relieved a great financial burden for me and my family, giving me a chance for a future limited only by my drive to succeed.”

Josué Cruz, dean of the College of Education and Human Development, noted that by making the scholarships renewable, the Baileys provided a “great incentive for students to work hard and achieve.”

A banking executive, James Bailey graduated from Bowling Green in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. While an undergraduate, he was an assistant to mathematics professor Frank Ogg and was active in student groups, including Kappa Mu Epsilon mathematics honor society. He went on to earn a master’s degree in mathematics from New York University in 1970.

As the first members of their families to attend college, he said, he and many of his fellow students worked hard to pay the $600-per-semester tuition, but “Bowling Green gave us a chance to change the trajectory of our lives. We may not have realized that when we first set foot here 40 years ago.”

Bailey spent 28 years of his career at Citibank, where he managed its North American Consumer Bank and Credit Card business. Shortly after retiring as Citibank’s executive vice president in 2000, he accepted his present position as executive vice president of U.S. Trust’s Product Management Group.

A former member of the boards of directors at VISA and the Depository Trust Corp., he currently serves on the board of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, the advisory board of the College of Arts & Sciences at New York University, the board of visitors of the Georgetown University School of Medicine, and the BGSU Foundation Board.

He and his wife chose mathematics education for one part of their gift after hearing a presentation to the foundation board by Barbara Moses, mathematics and statistics and director of COSMOS, a collaborative effort to improve the teaching of math and science. Moses spoke about the crucial importance of mathematics to our society and our economy and the disturbing dwindling of interest in the subject.

The Baileys targeted math education specifically because “teachers have an underappreciated skill. Teachers have the opportunity to turn people off or turn people on,“ James Bailey said, recalling that he had gotten a C in his first math class at BGSU but then had a great professor “who made all the difference in the world.”

Donald Nieman, dean of the College of Arts &Sciences, called the gift “among the most significant in the history of the College of Arts & Sciences and only the second endowed professorship in the college.” By attracting eminent senior faculty members, both students and other faculty benefit, Nieman said. By creating an endowed professorship in a critical area that also is a strength in the college, he pointed out, the Baileys are helping both to meet a pressing social need and further strengthening BGSU, which is strong not only in graduate studies in mathematics but is a national leader in the reform of science and math education.

Ribeau added that “the most important thing we do is hire the right people. When you have the right people, then the magic takes place and is expressed in the lives of our students and in the disciplines themselves.”

BGSU has far too few endowed professorships, the president warned. “There are six now, but we need one in every department,” he said. Also on hand at the April 1 event was Patrick Ryan, who with his wife, Debra, endowed a chair in biology in 2001. Gifts such as the Ryans’ and the Baileys’ help “complete the equation” along with scholarships, he said.

Bailey told the audience that he and his wife chose the arts for the second portion of the gift because of their importance to the quality of life. If they were to be “rubbed out, what a dull place this would be,” he said.

James Bailey also gave the first Arts & Sciences Distinguished Alumni Lecture, on leadership, later that day.