UK trustees have finalized the contract for President-select Dr. Eli Capilouto.

The board voted Tuesday to give Capilouto a five-year contract, with a base salary of $500,000, said UK spokesman Jay Blanton.

With retirement benefits, Capilouto’s compensation will total $625,000.

Blanton said that is comparable to outgoing President Lee Todd’s current pay.

The contract follows the basic plan of what was outlined in May when the board selected Capilouto, Blanton said.

Capilouto was not present for the meeting, but he visited campus last week to meet with small groups of faculty.

He met with about 60 faculty members total, asking for the groups to be diverse in terms of representing different departments and fields of study.

Carey Cavanaugh, director of the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, who was part of the first meeting, said he thought that was a good format.

“I think to focus on a single college … would have been a mistake,” he said.

Blanton said Capilouto asked what they liked about UK and what they find challenging, and the conversations went from there.

“The sense from these discussions is he’s asking the right kinds of questions,” Cavanaugh said. “He’s very much in listening mode.”

Rodney Guttmann, director of graduate studies in the Graduate Center for Gerontology, said the faculty did most of the talking, and that Capilouto appeared genuinely interested in what they had to say.

“For example, though we were running late, he made sure everyone had a chance to speak their mind, and he was very gracious,” Guttmann said in an email to the Kernel. “I came away feeling good about him.”

Capilouto begins his term as UK president at the beginning of July.