President Caboni

Dear Colleagues,

Emerging from experiences of the past 18 months provides us opportunities to rethink many aspects of our operations. With the disruption of our ability to travel and vacation as usual, our leadership team temporarily increased, through the end of this calendar year, the number of vacation hours eligible to roll over from one year to the next.

Today, I am pleased to share with you that after a full review of the university’s vacation policy, the following change is effective immediately:

The number of vacation hours eligible to roll over from one fiscal year to the next increases from 150 hours (20 days) to 325 hours (two months) - more than doubling the authorized rollover amount. To be clear, unused vacation hours will not roll over to sick time until the end of fiscal year 2022, at which time the number of vacation hours retained increases to 325.

The following change is effective July 1, 2022:

• The vacation payout upon separation of employment increases from 150 hours (20 days) to a maximum of 250 hours (1.5 months). (Upon separation of employment, employees are only eligible for payout after at least one year of employment).

These changes will be implemented on a recurring basis for the foreseeable future.

As I shared during our Faculty and Staff Convocation in August, we remain committed to moving the needle on compensation with this year’s 2% raise pool. We will distribute that pool as follows:

On January 1, 2022, a 1.5% salary increase will be distributed across the board to all faculty and staff hired on or before August 1, 2021.

• .5% of the pool has been reserved to address compensation concerns among faculty and staff as early as March 2022.

Our faculty and staff remain at the center of every success across our campus. You are critical to the advancement of our students and our institution. I am incredibly grateful for your continued commitment to excellence and hope that you find these policy revisions personally beneficial. If you have questions, please contact Human Resources at 270-745-5360.

As we approach the midpoint of the semester, many of our students will begin taking midterm examinations. These serve as an indicator of our students’ academic progress so far. They do not, however, tell the full story of our students’ overall well-being. Please remain attentive to those students who do not appear to have connections to others on campus and help them integrate into the WKU community. Our Dean of Students, Housing and Residence Life staff and Student Activities staff can assist students in finding their niche and sense of belonging, but often they need repeated guidance to connect with those resources. Collectively, we can remove barriers that we know inhibit student success.

Thank you for your tireless efforts to ensuring our students succeed.

GO TOPS!

Timothy C. Caboni