The Associated Press

RICHMOND - Eastern Kentucky University's president quietly received a pay raise after she was a finalist to head a university in Illinois earlier this year.

Joanne Glasser was the lowest-paid public university president in Kentucky before she got the $40,000 raise in May.

The money will come from unrestricted funds raised by the EKU Foundation, which recently launched its first capital campaign. Glasser's raise came three months after she was a finalist for the presidency at Illinois State University.

EKU recently raised its tuition for the next school year by 16.4 percent for in-state undergraduates. The recently approved budget for the next fiscal year calls for employees to receive 1.5 percent raises. Glasser, whose salary was $185,117, will get a 21.6 percent raise.

The foundation's chairman said it was important to keep Glasser at Eastern Kentucky.

"We frankly felt that investing in whatever way we could in order to support the leadership of President Glasser was actually an investment in our campaign," Dustan McCoy said.

The raise is effective this month.

Glasser received a two-year contract extension in December but did not get a raise. In a statement she said she had "steadfastly declined efforts by our Board of Regents to adjust my salary with public funds."