President Eli Capilouto will reduce his annual salary this coming year by 10 percent, according to a campus email from UK Board of Trustees chair Robert Vance.

Vance said that Capilouto requested that those funds be directed to the university’s employee assistance fund, run by the Department of Human resources.

According to a Herald-Leader database, Capilouto’s annual salary is $790,000 as of September 2019. That does not include benefits.

This is the last year of Capilouto’s 12-year contract for president. Vance said that Capilouto expressed desire to continue in the position and that the terms of the extension will be announced at the June Board of Trustees meeting.

“Extending that leadership, and providing a steady sense of continuity at such an uncertain and unsettling moment, is critically important,” Vance said.

Vance shared a letter Capilouto had sent to him declaring his intent to continue as president; Capilouto’s current contract requires that, if he plans to remain president, he must notify the board by June.

Capilouto wrote that he was “humbled by the request of so many of the Board to seek an extension of my contract to continue our work together.”

In the letter, Capilouto said that because of the rewarding work and “critical inflection point” of the moment, he would be “gratified” to continue his term as president.

Capilouto and Vance both said that information will be forthcoming on how others can donate to the employee resistance fund and other similar measures.

Capilouto said he would be encouraging his leadership team to do so.

After the announcement of the university’s revenue shortfall, budget cuts and furloughs, some questioned why top administrators had not taken a pay cut like those at other universities.

The terms of Capilouto’s extended contract will be decided by the Board’s June 2020 meeting, where the trustees will also vote on a proposed tuition increase (1 percent for in-state, 2 percent for out-of-state).