After being put on hold for a few months, a top Western administrator got word this week that a pay raise was coming his way.

At Wednesday’s Board of Regents meeting, the board approved a pay raise for Dean Kahler, vice president for Enrollment Management. The regents also approved an amended contract for Athletics Director Wood Selig.

Decisions about pay raises for Kahler and Selig were postponed at the board’s October meeting. At that meeting, Kahler’s raise was proposed at about $19,000, and Selig’s was about $34,000.

On Wednesday, Kahler’s approved raise was about $9,200. After the raise was postponed in October, administrators decided to phase in Kahler’s raise and ask the board for half of it in January and the other half at a later date — likely July — said Deborah Wilkins, chief of staff and general counsel.

Before the board voted, Faculty Regent Patricia Minter urged regents to vote against Kahler’s raise.

The board voted 8-3 in favor of Kahler’s raise. Minter, Staff Regent James Kennedy and Student Regent Kevin Smiley voted against the raise.

Minter said the faculty and staff have made their position very clear, and their opinion hasn’t changed.

“Today’s vote was a slap in the face to them,” Minter said Wednesday. “I think the board has sent a very bad message.”

Smiley said he was disappointed with how it turned out, but he thinks his vote was cast in the right way.

“Money is tight, and I expect Western to be reasonable about how it’s spent,” he said.

Smiley said he thought Minter made good points about morale being down, and that because he, Minter and Kennedy were elected by the campus community, they were in a better place to understand that.

“We’re a little bit more in sync with what’s going on day to day,” Smiley said.

Kahler declined to comment.

The contract approved for Selig at Wednesday’s meeting didn’t include a raise as it did in October.

But Selig will still get a raise of about $34,000 through private donations made to the WKU Foundation that are designated for athletics. The foundation approved the action in December.

Selig said he was grateful for the support that Ransdell and the board have given him throughout his tenure.

“It’s unfortunate that there was such controversy, but I understand how universities operate and don’t take any of it personally,” Selig said.

The board also approved a contract for new football Head Coach Willie Taggart. It pays him $225,000 annually for four years with an option for a fifth.

With the economy in decline, many people are looking to save money wherever they can, and the Board of Regents members are no exception.

A scaled-back Board of Regents meeting will take place on Wednesday in Mass Media and Technology Hall, and the board will have to make decisions about employee salaries and new academic programs.

The Jan. 27 meeting was supposed to take place in Frankfort, but administrators decided to move it to Bowling Green to save the expenses involved in traveling, said Robbin Taylor, vice president for Public Affairs.

It’s a tradition for the January board meeting to take place in Frankfort at the beginning of the legislative session, President Gary Ransdell said.

Regents also typically host a reception for the General Assembly, he said.

But Ransdell and Board of Regents Chair Jim Meyer decided this wasn’t the time to spend the money to have the Frankfort meeting and reception, given the budget pressures in the state and higher education, Ransdell said.

“We felt like we sent a more thoughtful signal by not going,” he said.

Even with a change in location, the board will have several items on their agenda.

They’ll decide whether to renew Athletics Director Wood Selig’s contract and whether to give a raise to Dean Kahler, associate vice president for Enrollment Management, said Deborah Wilkins, chief of staff and general counsel.

At the board’s October meeting, the regents postponed decisions about raises for both Selig and Kahler.

Selig’s raise of about $34,000 is not included in his newly revised contract on the agenda for Wednesday, Wilkins said.

Selig will still be getting a raise, but it will come from private donations approved in December by the WKU Foundation, she said.

The foundation oversees private donations to the university, and some of the money set aside for athletics will pay for Selig’s raise, Wilkins said.

In October, Kahler’s proposed raise was about $19,000, but that raise will now be proposed in phases, and a raise of about $9,000 will be voted on at Wednesday’s meeting, Wilkins said.

The board is also set to approve several new undergraduate certificates, including those in American Sign Language studies and computer literacy, according to the meeting’s agenda materials.

Western will be the first American university to partner with Navitas Ltd, a company that Western officials hope will help them double international enrollment over the next decade.

Officials announced earlier this month that Navitas will launch its University Pathways Program in September and is expecting to admit about 80 students for the fall semester.

The partnership will enable first-year international students to take an intensive course study at Western’s main campus in Bowling Green, said Dean Kahler, associate vice president for Enrollment Management.

Kahler said Western currently has about 700 international students. He expects to at least double that number by the end of the ten-year contract with Navitas.

The program specifically seeks out students who are in areas where educational opportunities aren’t abundant, he said. One target country is China, where the large population makes it hard for students to get into college.

The partnership is already attracting worldwide attention.

“Within ten business days we already have people calling from Korea,” he said.

Representatives from Navitas and Western have been working together for the past nine months to develop the program, Kahler said.

Navitas has a 90 percent retention rate for students moving from their first to second year, and the company’s graduation rate is 95 percent, he said.

Chief Diversity Officer Richard Miller attributed the program’s success rate to its intensive curriculum.

“We’re very optimistic about the educational model,” Miller said.

Sam Evans, dean of the College of Education and Behavioral Science, said the program will create an avenue for students overseas who want an American experience.

“This is a great opportunity for Western to gain the knowledge and skills needed by everyone to survive in a global society,” Evans said.

Kahler said the partnership may play a role when future domestic students consider applying to Western.

“Students want to come to schools that are on the edge, contemporary, dynamic and going somewhere in this world,” he said. “Navitas is one example how WKU is on the move and truly becoming a very strong leading university in the United States.”

Kahler will present a marketing plan for the program at tomorrow’s Board of Regents meeting.

At tonight’s Student Government Association meeting:

• President Gary Ransdell came to the meeting and answered senators’ questions.

He addressed the Board of Regents’ decision to postpone the vote on raises for Dean Kahler, associate vice president of Enrollment Management, and Athletics Director Wood Selig until the next board meeting in January.

This is the first time in 12 years the board didn’t approve a president’s recommendation, Ransdell said.

The proposed raises can’t be compared with raises for other faculty and staff because the circumstances surrounding them are different, he said.

Selig is an asset to the Athletics department, and a significant raise is necessary to keep him at Western, Ransdell said.

Kahler does a good job and is making much less than the previous associate vice president of Enrollment Management, so he deserves a raise, he said.

Ransdell said that he doesn’t know what will happen with Kahler’s raise, but Selig’s raise will most likely come from money taken out of Athletics revenue.

Aaron Pawley, SGA director of academic and student affairs, asked Ransdell if decreased attendance at football games would change tailgating policy. Ransdell said it wouldn’t.

He said it’s not necessary to damage the campus for tailgating, and students should adapt to the changed policy.

Ransdell also addressed the possible relocation of the campus police department to block 12 of the Tax Incremental Finance District, which is near Center, 13th and Kentucky streets.

He said the current conditions of the police station are “deplorable,” and leasing a new building is the only solution.

• Bowling Green sophomore Allan Huntsman, Bowling Green freshman Jonathon Tabor and Nicholas Hummer, a junior from West Palm Beach, Fla., were approved as student senators.

Four senators — Bowling Green senior Skylar Baker-Jordan, Louisville senior Michel Stephens, Bowling Green sophomore Emmett Stephens and Lexington sophomore Daniel Shaw — resigned from SGA in October.

The former senators cited various reasons for resigning, including disagreement with decisions made by SGA’s executive board members.

• Senators passed two bills. One gave $1,500 from SGA’s general budget to help fund the American Collegiate Intramural Sports Regional Flag Football Tournament.

The other bill gave $4,253 of organizational aid money to nine student organizations.

• Sarah Howell, SGA director of information technology, announced that the SGA Web site has been updated, and the bills and resolutions discussed in SGA are now available online.