WKU President Timothy Caboni discussed the university’s budget, the Mahurin Honors College, Conference USA athletics and other issues facing the WKU community on Thursday in an interview with the College Heights Herald Editorial Board. 

The university’s budget for the 2024-25 year, which the Board of Regents approved in June, calls for assessing a 10% “overhead charge” on revenue-dependent accounts – those areas of the university that are funded only by the money they bring in. The Herald is a revenue-dependent operation.

Caboni said on Thursday that WKU has not yet figured out how it will implement the plan.

“We do not have an implementation plan for the 10% we’re still having conversations around, is that the most efficient way to do this, or might there be other ways,” Caboni said.

On Monday, Caboni announced at his Faculty and Staff Convocation that the WKU Opportunity Fund has surpassed its $100 million goal. In the interview with the Herald, he praised the over $100 million dollars raised for the Opportunity Fund and its constant benefits to students.

“We’ve actually supported over 20,000 students because of the work of the opportunity fund in the past several years, and it’s rewarding,” said Caboni.

Caboni also noted the increased pressure on the university’s education and general fund budget. It is this budget out of which most of WKU’s operations are funded, including salary for faculty and staff and institutional scholarships. He expressed that, despite pressures on the fund, his focus remains on student and faculty support. 

He also said he hoped the Kentucky General Assembly would increase its funding of higher education in the coming years, as it did in the state’s current two-year budget.

“And so, what my hope is, and I’m thankful for the legislature, is that they will continue to see us as a good investment,” Caboni said. “The more that they can invest, either in performance funding, or my preference would be base budgets, the more we’ll be able to do as an institution.”

With the movement of six former C-USA teams to the American Athletic Conference at the beginning of the 2023 season, the league began adding teams moving to the Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level of college football, from the Football Championship Series.

Caboni, a former C-USA chair, said the conference was looking for schools that were “similar to us, had strong budgets, had strong enrollment, had success at the FCS level.” Jacksonville State in Alabama and Sam Houston State in Texas made their league debut in 2023, Kennesaw State in Georgia will make its introduction this year and Delaware and Missouri State will join in 2025.

“Many of the universities in Conference USA are R2 universities, what we aspire to become,” Caboni said. “And so I think what you’re going to see is a group of institutions that are making a similar investment in sports. They have similar size programs and I hope there is parity and good competition among them.”

Caboni said it will “take some time” to see in-conference rivalries develop for WKU. The Hilltoppers already compete in the “100 Miles of Hate” rivalry against conference opponent Middle Tennessee State and Caboni said he already feels a rivalry with Liberty University in Virginia and believes one will develop with Jacksonville State because “it’s a drive that folks can make.”

What else to know

• Caboni reaffirmed his and the university’s support of students’ right to free speech while on campus. He expressed pride about the WKU community’s response to last semester’s events surrounding Kyle Rittenhouse. He said that, as a public university, WKU is a place for the discussion of diverse ideas and that any peaceful speech cannot be prohibited or limited on campus. “Freedom of speech is one of our most important constitutionally guaranteed rights,” Caboni said.
• The taskforce to reevaluate the fundamentals of the Mahurin Honors College, which was first announced at Monday’s convocation, will likely form in September, Caboni said. The taskforce will work throughout the year to come up with recommendations to “hopefully” be implemented during the fall 2025 semester.
• Caboni confirmed that there will be another installment of the Presidential Lecture Series this fall, though he could not provide any additional information.
• Caboni was unable to provide further updates on Hilltopper Hall, which was shut down completely in the Spring of 2024 due to cracking in the facade that raised safety concerns. “I wish Hilltopper Hall was open today,” he said.

Caboni was looking forward to a successful year on the Hill, saying that he was most looking forward to seeing happy, new faces on campus and also that he was excited about success with student retention.

“I want every Hilltopper to know that there is going to become a point as you left home and you come here and you’ve separated from your family for a period of time that you’re going to realize that you’re on your own…But that even though you’re on your own, when you’re here, you’re never alone,” Caboni said.