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.

It’s been a week since Western announced the firing of Head Football Coach David Elson, and already there’s an intriguing storyline shaping up for the coming weeks and months.

How does the Western administration, specifically President Gary Ransdell and Athletics Director Wood Selig, respond to growing criticism within the Western community?

We heard support on numerous occasions for Elson and the job he was doing from Selig, who often preached patience.

But last Monday, it all took a sharp left turn.

Faculty Regent Patricia Minter said much of the criticism she is hearing about the situation has less to do with Elson and more with Ransdell and Selig saying one thing and doing another.

“We’re faculty of a university, we’re trained to analyze things, and we get very upset when we’re told that something is black when it is clearly white or when something is up when it’s clearly down,” Minter said. “I think going forward, what needs to happen is the spin needs to stop and it’s time for a new era of honesty.”

Now Selig is faced with bringing in a coach that will ignite interest in the fanbase and put a successful product on the field.

The other hot topic in the coming weeks: How much will the next coach be paid?

Elson earned $250,000 a year, but that number presumably will go up for the next coach. That will potentially leave more ground for faculty to be upset on the basis that after years of no raises, a new football coach could come in and be one of the top-five highest paid employees at Western.

“(The salaries are) marketplace driven,” Selig said. “Neither (Ransdell) or I have set the rate. The market place sets salaries, not just in the coaching profession but every profession. There is a market place, and there is a going rate. And again, we didn’t set it, but we need to play by those rules.”

There’s still disagreement out there about Western moving up to the Football Bowl Subdivision, but that’s in the past. We can only look forward now.

Minter said that if Western is going to give Selig and the next coach FBS-level pay, then the faculty need to be paid at that rate as well.

“I can understand the faculty being concerned about the level of compensation, especially when it is compared to their compensation,” Selig said. “I get that, and I understand it, and I don’t necessarily disagree with them either. I think it’s absurd, some of the salaries being tossed around in college athletics.”

Western has entered a market where, according to a recent report by USA Today, 81 of the current 120 FBS coaches earn at least $1 million annually, and 12 of those coaches earn at least $3 million.

Ransdell’s dream of FBS football has been a nightmare early on.

Now the weight rests squarely on Selig’s shoulders to bring in a home-run hire to get this thing where Ransdell wants it to be.

And as we all know, what Ransdell wants, Ransdell often gets.

Only time and more money will tell on this one.