Editor’s note: This story was updated at 5:47 p.m. on Oct. 17 with a comment from WKU. 

Several top administrators are set to receive significant pay increases, according to documents on the agenda of the Board of Regents’ finance and budget committee meeting on Friday.

The increases for high-level administrators come as WKU announced Tuesday that most employees across the university will get raises of 1% as of Jan. 1.

The administer raises include:

• Terrance Brown, dean of Potter College of Arts and Letters. Brown currently has a salary of $162,547.20 and has a proposed salary of $200,000. This would leave Brown with a $37,452.80 increase, placing his salary in a closer range to the rest of the deans.
• Ron Wilson, associate vice president of Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement. Wilson’s current salary is $129,413.52 and has a proposed salary of $155,000. Wilson, while listed to have an expected salary increase of $25,586.48, was not grouped within the list of those receiving increases over $5,000. 
• Amanda Trabue, vice president of Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement. Trabue currently has a salary of $238,129,20, with a proposed salary of $260,000, a salary increase of $21,870.80. 
• Tania Basta, dean of the College of Health and Human Services. Basta has a current salary of $191,543.76, with a proposed salary of $211,000, an expected increase of $19,543.76. 
• Susan Howarth, executive vice president for Strategy, Operations and Finance. Howarth has a current salary of $258,839.28 and a proposed salary of $270,000.00, a raise of $11,160.72. 

Overall, there are 11 staff members listed in the document to have salary increases over $5,000, not including Wilson. Brown, Trabue, Basta and Howarth are stated to have “new contract agreements.”

In addition to these administrators come numerous other WKU employees listed to have a salary increase greater than $5,000. This includes reasoning “due to staff turnover,” “reallocation of funds within departments” as well as “new annual salary also reflects addition of cell stipend to employee base salary.”

The document also proposes varying salary increases for full-time and part-time faculty and staff members, as well as various one-time payments to some faculty and staff.

These proposed salary increases come as the university discusses an $11 million overspending from fiscal year 2023, which was attributed to athletics and enrollment divisions and one-time payments.

Jace Lux, WKU media spokesperson, said salary adjustments like these are typically included in routine personnel actions brought before the Board of Regents.

“Routine personnel actions brought before the Board of Regents typically include salary adjustments for individuals who have experienced significant shifts in their job responsibilities, individuals who have entered into new employment contracts with the university, or when faculty are promoted or receive tenure,” Lux said via email.

In an email sent to faculty and staff on Tuesday, WKU announced the Budget Executive Committee recommended a distribution scenario for the $1.9 million salary increase pool allocated in the 2023-2024 budget.

University leadership accepted the recommendation for the 2% pool, which will include a 1% “across-the-board” pay increase for eligible employees and 1% divided amongst organizational units and used to “strategically address compensation issues within their area(s).”

The across-the-board salary increase will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024 for employees hired on or before July 31, 2023.

The 1% pool divided among organizational units, approximately $950k, will be distributed to divisional leaders proportional to their share of budgeted salary, the email stated. 

“Divisional leaders will then have the discretion to address the most pressing compensation issues within their unit, including instances where employee pay falls below the minimum of the appropriate pay band, salary compression, compa-ratio outliers, and salary inversion within lines of report,” Howarth stated in the email. “ Strategic increases will be determined by April 1, 2024, and be retroactive to January 1, 2024.”

Content Editor Molly Dobberstein can be reached at [email protected]

Editor-in-Chief Alexandria Anderson can be reached at [email protected]