Monday was D-day - D for disclosure - on Utah's nine public university and college campuses as the salaries of higher education employees were made public for the first time in Utah's history.
At least two campus leaders said it wasn't a big deal."I think people in my department and in many disciplines are happy it's happening because everyone will know how little they earn," said Kent Robson, president of the Faculty Senate and head of the department of languages and philosophy at Utah State University.
"A lot of people would like more revealed," Robson said, referring to federal grants that often provide hefty non-state salaries for people in the sciences.
"I think there is no hesitation on this (on campus), and I think it will probably solve some problems and introduce new pressure to increase pay," Robson said.
John McCullough, anthropology professor and president of the Faculty Senate at the University of Utah, generally agrees with Robson, although the two differ on a few matters.
"The faculty hasn't said very much. It's just a non-issue for most people," McCullough said. "We have too many other things to do, like teaching and research."
Unlike Robson, McCullough said he wasn't sure if public disclosure would do anything to boost university pay. He said it's not uncommon for professors' pay in Utah to fall well behind comparable institutions in other states, a situation that should embarrass the Legislature. "The Legislature is unshameable, but that is what our situation is," he said.
"Our main consternation on campus is, `Should the salaries of people not paid out of state funds be disclosed, like coaches, doctors?' There are mixed feelings. I personally feel if taxpayers aren't paying for it, they have no business knowing what it is," McCullough said.
Three of the state's universities won't be revealing salaries that come from sources not directly appropriated by the Legislature. These include ticket sales for athletic events, bookstore sales or money raised from food-service programs.
However, Utah State University officials have decided to make total salaries clear by showing salary figures from state appropriated funds and indicating what percentage of an individual's income that particular figure represents.
USU spokesman Lee Roderick said USU President George Emert chose to disclose the information. "He decided we were not going to play games with this," Roderick said. "It's much more in tune with the spirit of the law."
Some higher education officials argue that a newly amended open records law does not provide for disclosure of these salaries.
By deadline Monday, the Deseret News had received salary information from Utah State University, Utah Valley State College, Southern Utah University and Salt Lake Community College. Other schools made arrangements to provide the information by mail. But University of Utah officials said they would not release information until noon, after Monday's press deadlines.
Public disclosure of university salaries is routine in other states.
"I've never heard anybody talk about it," said David Musolf, secretary of the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where salaries are published regularly in local and student papers.
"My guess is this has been a fact of life so long that it is simply accepted," Musolf said. "I've been on campus some 20 years, and it has been public information for as long as I've been here."
House Majority Leader Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, the sponsor of the amendment that opened up higher education system salaries, said disclosure can only help.
`Without pointing fingers at anyone, there are too many opportunities for helping people or giving people higher pay, not because of merit, but because of personalities or friendships," he said. "There is no way we can know if that's happening, if administrators are doing their jobs, without having that information."
He said professors should not fear their salaries becoming public. In fact, he said, calls to his office from professors are running 3-to-1 in favor of disclosure.
Disclosure may create initial interest, but it will die down, he said. "In other places, there's been a real feeding frenzy for a month or so," he said. "I don't think anyone is going to be humiliated."
The Utah Public Employees' Association has campaigned for the release of higher education salaries for the past decade, according to Don Clawson, an employee relations representative for higher education employees.
UPEA, which represents classified employees and a few professors, wants the information to help resolve pay inequities among members on different campuses.
"It's difficult to argue in favor of equal pay for equal work when you can't prove differences in salary,' Clawson said.
Jeff Hunt, a Salt Lake attorney who advises the Utah Society of Professional Journalists on freedom-of-information issues, stressed that the public needs to know how its money is being spent.
"These are public institutions, and people who work there should not have expectations this information is secret or private. It's part of the trade-off when you work for the public," Hunt said.
Brenda Hancock, deputy director of management services for Salt Lake City, said her counterparts in higher education shouldn't expect too many requests for salary information.
That's the way it is in Salt Lake City, which has a policy of making actual salaries paid to city employees available upon written request.
"I don't think there's going to be a lot of demand or interest," Hancock said. "The press will have access but again, typically, it will only be used if somebody's being hired or fired and it's a high-visibility position."