WKU President Timothy Caboni will take a 10% salary reduction and forego any of his bonuses and funnel it into the Opportunity Fund for struggling WKU families amid the coronavirus pandemic.

During Friday’s Board of Regents meeting, Caboni said he encouraged the presidential cabinet to reduce their salaries as well. Members of WKU Athletics, including Director of Athletics Todd Stewart, men’s basketball coach Rick Stansbury and football coach Tyson Helton similarly took a 10% reduction.

“We’re a family, and I know that our students and our families are struggling, and suffering, financially,” Caboni said. “You look around your community, and we know people are under great fiscal stress.”

Caboni said WKU’s focus will now be on operations for the fall 2020 semester and putting plans in place to “restart WKU in August,” noting there is uncertainty about this date. He said the university would be prepared for “every eventuality.”

The work WKU will do in August will look different from last August, Caboni said, but he remains optimistic it’ll be done in person, though probably a different way.

“All of our decisions will be made with the best interest of our students and their health and safety,” Caboni said.

Caboni said enrollment for the fall semester is currently up, but because of the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus, WKU would have to take steps to bring the class of 2024 in.

Retention has been a focus of Caboni’s time as WKU president. To address retention concerns after the coronavirus disrupted the semester, Caboni said the university has created a scholarship program for summer semester online learning as well as conducting advising appointments online.

Managing Editor Laurel Deppen can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @Laurel_Deppen.