The University of Hawaii said it is in the "quiet phase" of its search for a new athletic director and mum will be the word.

Two Board of Regents committees emerged from a 45-minute closed-door executive session Wednesday that set a salary range for the hiring of its next AD, but declined to say what that range is.

"We set a salary range, period," said Jeff Portnoy, chairman of the Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics. "We have set the range and whether it is within the range we already ($225,000-$315,000) had — or something else — remains to be seen."

Regents are required to approve all salaries in excess of $150,000.

Ben Jay, who announced his resignation last month and will serve until a successor is in place, is being paid $293,016, according to terms of the contract.

Manoa Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman, who announced the convening of an eight-member search advisory committee Jan. 13, told the regents, "with respect to the search, we are in the quiet phase, that is we are in the phase where we are not talking about questions about who has applied, how many have applied, are you having trouble, how often are you meeting, where are you meeting — none of that will happen."

A UH spokesman said the number of applicants will not be announced, "at least till the application process is complete."

Bley-Vroman said "we hope to have the initial interviews with people that we are seriously considering in early March."

But, he said, there are no plans to bring candidates to campus for public forums as UH has done with past candidates for the Manoa Chancellor position. "That’s not something we’ve ever done (for ADs)," he said.

Bley-Vroman said the committee will not employ a search firm as has been the case in two of the past three AD hires.

Meanwhile, Jay told regents that a projection of a $3.5 million deficit for the fiscal year that ends June 30 is still operative despite expectation of a $400,000 increase in its share of conference bowl revenues. The larger than expected share was attributed to Boise State playing in the Fiesta Bowl.