Many Western Kentucky University administrators will see big pay raises – several as high as 25% to 50% – after the university’s Board of Regents approved the personnel actions Friday in a unanimous vote with one abstention.

By comparison, WKU’s faculty and staff will see much more modest pay raises, with a 1.5% across-the-board salary increase effective Jan. 1.

Staff Regent David Brinkley abstained from voting because he is included in the administrator pay raises as director of WKU’s public broadcasting initiatives.

The changes, included in a lengthy list of personnel actions that took place between May 20 and Sept. 26, sailed through with no comments by board members or WKU President Timothy Caboni.

Caboni did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday about the fairness of these decisions, but WKU spokesman Jace Lux issued the following statement: “The compensation adjustments approved by the Board of Regents reflect the university’s ongoing commitment to empower divisional leaders to rethink and reimagine their units in order to best accomplish WKU’s strategic goals and maximize efficiencies. While it’s important that across-the-board cost of living increases (like the one coming in January) continue, we also anticipate that evaluation of organizational structures, repurposing existing department budgets and overall modernization of our units will be ongoing.”

The move has raised concerns from faculty on campus. It comes after WKU enacted an operating budget earlier this year that included about $9 million in spending cuts and relied upon a 2% tuition hike for undergraduate students and voluntary buyouts for senior employees to cut personnel costs.

The administrator raises drew scrutiny from WKU faculty senator Kirk Atkinson on Thursday during the Faculty Senate’s final meeting of the semester.

“That wonderful 1.5% (salary increase) pool that they’ve allocated for us pales in comparison to some of the raises that you’re seeing administrators get,” he said.

Atkinson said the Faculty Senate’s Budget and Finance Committee, which he serves on, would try to be “a little bit more of a pain in the backside” about the issue going forward.

Some of the largest jumps in pay are listed under the “reclassification” action of the lengthy list of personnel actions included in the regents’ meeting materials, published online at wku.edu/regents. According to the document, reclassification occurs when “an employee’s job title, salary grade and/or salary are changed as the result of a material increase in duties/responsibilities.”

These actions can be found on pages 34-36 of the lengthy personnel items document. These pages have been attached to this story online at bgdailynews.com.

The personnel actions provide that Staff Regent Brinkley’s salary will increase from $95,172 to $120,600, following board approval Friday. The pay raise amounts to a more than 26% increase to his previous salary.

Among the biggest pay increases is for Ronald G. Wilson, WKU’s associate vice president of philanthropy and alumni engagement. His pay rose from $82,944 to $124,992 under the changes, translating to a 50% salary increase.

James E. Clark, a senior associate athletic director of external relations with the Hilltopper Athletic Foundation, also tends toward the top of the list. Clark’s pay will jump from $92,361.60 to $125,000, or a 35% increase.

The personnel items also include substantial increases in pay for vice presidents and directors across the university’s communications and marketing divisions, athletics and within the president’s office. Jennifer Breiwa Smith, WKU’s executive director of government and external relations, would see her salary rise from $64,464 to $90,000, for example.

Neither board members nor Caboni had much to say about the matter during the board’s final quarterly meeting of the calendar year Friday.

Board Chair Phillip Bale did share a glowing review of Caboni’s performance as university president, however. Bale said each of the board members participated in the evaluation by filling out a lengthy questionnaire that reviewed Caboni’s performance across several leadership areas.

Bale rattled off declining student enrollment nationwide, reductions in financial support, increasing competition and an increase in public apathy toward higher education, all which have been compounded by a global pandemic.

“While many American colleges and universities face uncertain futures, the Western Kentucky University Board of Regents believes that under President Caboni’s leadership, our university is now better positioned to harness our available resources, utilize our collective imaginations, and create an environment that fosters student success and well-being in a higher education world full of transformation,” Bale said, reading from the annual evaluation.

Caboni described his accomplishments as the result of a team effort and a credit to the university as a whole.

“I continue to wake up every day excited about the possibilities at Western Kentucky University,” Caboni said.