The salary issue

A few weeks ago, The Exponent, the independent student newspaper here at Purdue, published the salaries of all faculty, administrators, clerical, and service staff at the university. Some were surprised, and the newspaper got angry calls saying this was private information. It is not, of course; such information is open to anyone at a state university. It was more complicated, but not difficult, to get before: the "salary books" are available at the undergraduate library and at the personnel (aka "human resources") building for viewing.

At a favorite Indian restaurant near campus, the owner said that the salary pages from the newspaper were THE hot topic of conversation that day; she looked up her customers, and exclaimed that the high paid professors were the worst tippers, while the lower paid were more generous. Hahahaha...great moo2 stuff.

The Exponent reported a few days later that hundreds of copies of the newspaper were dumped prior to distribution in recycling bins behind one of the Engineering buildings.