photo by: Associated Press

In this Oct. 24, 2019, file photo, students walk in front of Fraser Hall on the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, Kan. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner, File)

A 10% pay cut for nearly 40 University of Kansas administrators will save the university $279,500 less than it estimated when the six-month salary reductions were announced Monday.

Late Tuesday, KU officials said they realized they accidentally calculated some of the university’s savings based on a 10% reduction of 12-month salaries for employees rather than 6-month salaries.

The acknowledgement came after the Journal-World examined state salary data and noticed the 39 affected KU officials would have had to make an average annual salary of over $437,000 to account for the $853,000 KU initially announced it would save from the temporary pay cut. Few employees included in the cut make a salary that high.

After several inquiries, a KU spokesperson said Wednesday that the message would be corrected.

When it announced pay cuts for administrative officials, KU also announced that men’s basketball coach Bill Self, football coach Les Miles, and Athletic Director Jeff Long would also take a 10% pay cut for the next six months. That move will save the athletic department $500,000 — and was correctly calculated in Monday’s announcement.

The campus leaders whose salaries will be temporarily reduced by 10% to save the university $573,500 include Chancellor Douglas Girod, 26 members of Girod’s cabinet, vice provosts and school deans at the Lawrence and Edwards campuses, in addition to 12 senior leaders and school deans at the medical center.

Girod has regularly estimated that KU will lose somewhere in the range of “tens of millions” of dollars during the pandemic. It remains too early to know, he said Monday, whether KU will have to furlough or lay off employees further down the line as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We remain committed to protecting our people — particularly our most vulnerable populations — to the greatest extent possible,” Girod said in the announcement.