UK recently announced a $70 million revenue shortfall that led to the introduction of several cost-cutting initiatives, including the furlough of 1,700 employees. 

Like UK, the University of Louisville also introduced furloughs and announced that administrators would take pay cuts.

UK administrators will not take pay cuts, UK spokesperson Jay Blanton confirmed to the Kernel.

“Our budget officials conducted a lot of analysis of different scenarios that it would take to meet the goal of addressing this shortfall. As we talked to people throughout the institution, it was clear that if we needed to take additional steps, adjusting benefits first, in the way we did, would be a preferred option,” said Blanton.

University administrators make some of the highest salaries at UK.

As of September 15, 2019, UK President Eli Capilouto’s annual salary is $790,000, according to a Herald-Leader database. UK Provost David Blackwell’s annual salary is $532,875. Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Mark Newman’s annual salary is $1,133,730 and the Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Eric Monday’s annual salary is $444,619.

“If you cut pay, it’s essentially a double hit to people. You are impacting pay and benefits,” Blanton said. “We took the step of reducing benefits first. We hope this series of steps we are taking gets us where we need to be, even as we know additional steps might be necessary in what remains a very fluid and tough environment.”

Blanton said the issue would continue to be evaluated moving forward.