The issue arose over a proposed $4.4 million renovation of the Boone Center, UK's faculty club. It was approved by the council on July 19 and a legislative oversight committee on July 20 but was not scheduled to be presented to the UK board of trustees until two months later, on Sept. 21.

The trustees voted at the September meeting to table the proposal until they had more information, partly because of faculty outcry about the project's costs.

Sherron Jackson, assistant vice president for finance at the council, said council members approved the project assuming that any project presented by UK would have already been presented to its governing board.

The normal process, Jackson said, was for a governing board, such as UK's Board of Trustees, to review any project over $400,000 and then send it to the council. Once approved by the council, the project would be sent to the Legislature's Capital Projects and Bond Oversight Committee.

The only exception is during legislative sessions when projects can be added directly to the state budget. For example, plans for a new bed tower at the UK medical center appeared in last year's proposed budget but had yet to be presented to the trustees.

"We made an assumption the board had made a decision" on the faculty club, Jackson said. "If there's blame, then we're guilty of not specifically saying, 'Has your board approved this?'"

From now on, Jackson said, the council will ask whether each project from UK or other universities has been approved by governing boards.

UK officials say they often seek state approval of building projects before they are presented to the trustees.

Frank Butler, acting vice president for administration, said the Boone Center project went to the council first because of scheduling.

Butler said the council and legislative committee met before the project could have come before the board. Project documents show it was under discussion all spring, with architectural drawings finished as early as March. The board met on May 4 and June 22.

"The fact the Boone Center hadn't gone before the Board of Trustees beforehand didn't make it different from a lot of other projects," Butler said.

Still, UK is changing its policy and process on approving large projects. "I haven't been comfortable with the fact that we don't have a nailed-down process for capital projects to follow," Butler said.

Butler said the faculty club project will be on hold for a while - "everyone will take a deep breath because we have to do some work on this."

Trustees' Chairman James Hardymon, who questioned the approval process last month, said he was satisfied that UK would come up with a better planning process.

"I do understand that things fall through the cracks," he said.

The planned Boone Center renovation prompted a public outcry from faculty and staff because of its cost in the middle of a budget crisis, and the fact that half of its funding would come from undesignated donations that could be used for anything on campus.

President Lee Todd says the project is necessary so that UK has an elegant and spacious place for fund raising and conferences.