Western Kentucky University will make important administrative hires in coming months as it continues advancing long-term building projects, a review of its academic programs and new budgeting practices.

“The rapidly evolving world of higher education, coupled with an increasingly competitive environment, requires us to evolve and to do new things that will continue our success,” WKU President Timothy Caboni wrote in a email to faculty and staff Monday. Caboni framed the searches as the next logical step in the university’s new 10-year strategic plan.

In the next six months, WKU wrote that the university will hire new deans for the Gordon Ford College of Business and College of Health and Human Services; a new vice president for philanthropy and alumni engagement; and a new vice president for strategic communications and marketing, which will replace WKU’s Public Affairs Division.

Perhaps the most vital position the university will conduct a national search for is a new executive vice president for the Division of Strategy, Operations and Finance. The position will replace senior vice president Ann Mead, who heads WKU’s Finance and Administration Division. Mead plans to retire this summer.

Last spring, as part of a larger $30 million budget balancing effort, the university’s IT and facilities departments were brought under the Finance and Administration Division. WKU spokesman Bob Skipper said the new executive vice president will oversee both departments.

“By consolidating these positions under one leadership position … it allows for some efficiencies,” Skipper said.

WKU Provost Terry Ballman and Corinne Murphy, the dean of WKU’s College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, are co-chairing a search committee and announced the search Tuesday in an email to faculty and staff. The position is advertised on the university’s website at https://bit.ly/2DVJGvs.

WKU has retained the Atlanta-based Parker Executive Search firm to help with the search and is paying the firm $60,000, Skipper said.

Applications will be considered in confidence, but the names and resumes of finalists will be released before on-campus meetings with university stakeholders as part of the final interview process, the online vacancy said.

Skipper noted other changes the university is making to its division, including his own Public Affairs Division. The division will focus more on marketing to reflect the university’s priority to enroll and retain students. Changes to other divisions are a chance to re-evaluate administrators’ responsibilities, Skipper said.

“We are just looking for the most efficient way that we can operate given our new strategic plan,” he said.