The Budget and Executive Committee discussed questions about employee salary increases on Thursday at the Faculty Senate meeting in the Student Government Association Chambers.
Kurt Neelly, Faculty Representative for the BEC, said WKU President Timothy Caboni announced at the Board of Regents meeting on Friday, Nov. 14, that compensation salaries would change from 2% salary increases to a salary increase of $1,680 per faculty or staff member throughout the university.
Provost Bud Fischer said this bonus will benefit around 80% of employees.
Margaret Crowder, geological sciences senior instructor, commended the BEC for recommending the increase because it benefits most employees. Crowder said in the past, the university has had enough money to pay employees a 2% raise based on their individual salaries.
Crowder said by giving everybody the same bonus instead of a 2% increase based on their individual salaries, the payment becomes “more meaningful.” She said university employees can be better equipped to pay for increases in health insurance, or even just have enough to get a little more at the grocery store.
“It just makes more sense because we’ve got high inflation,” Crowder said. “We’ve got people paying a lot more money. There are people on this campus who are making $30,000 a year or $35,000 a year, and if they get a 2% raise, it’s not a lot of money. It’s money, but it’s not a lot of money.”
Faculty Senate Vice Chair Brooke Gross announced the implementation of an Academic Sustainability Task Force.
The functions of the Committee on Academic Quality include studying and monitoring the changes to the grading system, changes in the drop/add policy, changes in advising policies and exploring additional ways to strengthen the academic culture at WKU, according to the Committee of Academic Quality Bylaws.
Faculty Senate Chair Dan Clark formed a temporary task force in the November 2025 Senate Executive meeting to follow up on the resolution put forth by the Academic Quality Committee at the May 15, 2025, Faculty Senate meeting.
The task force was also formed to assess university performance using metrics outside of recruitment, retention and tuition revenue, according to the Academic Sustainability Task Force report.
The Academic Sustainability Task Force will be composed of the Faculty Senate officers and Faculty Regent, as well as select standing committee chairs, according to the report. It stated that the task force will have the ability to appoint one or more ad hoc members as needed to address special tasks or topics.
“The Academic Sustainability Task Force will be in communication with each other as well as other faculty senators, standing committee members, and administrators on an as-needed basis to avoid task force activities being completed in a vacuum,” the report stated. “A representative from the group will provide a progress report at each Senate Executive Committee and Faculty Senate meeting beginning in January 2026.”
Six Standing Committee Reports were discussed and approved at the Faculty Senate meeting. The Faculty Senate Minutes for the meeting on Oct. 23, 2025, were also approved.
