It was hard not to notice the three-page spread of the academic staff and faculty base salaries in Monday’s issue of The Spectator.

It’s equally hard not to go anywhere without overhearing someone talking about it.

The purpose of running the list was to make people, particularly students, aware of the potential salary levels of faculty and academic staff.

The University Senate’s compensation committee is drafting legislation on what will determine salaries of faculty and academic staff.

It may have seemed like an invasion of privacy but this is a public university, funded mostly by taxpayer dollars.

People have a right to see where their money is going. This often is considered one of the drawbacks of working for a public institution.

The Spectator originally planned to only print the Web site where readers can go to find out the salaries for themselves. But without an acute knowledge of the UW System, it is an incredibly difficult site to navigate.

It wasn’t realistic to print simply a Web site where readers could go find the information for themselves. The Spectator provided all of the information in one easily accessible space.

Having all of the information printed in one area allows it to have a greater impact and creates a dialogue, which is exactly what is happening.

It is a newspaper’s job to inform its readers, and that is what The Spectator is doing. The spread provided easily accessible information pertaining to an important story at the university.

Anyone can find out how much students pay in tuition and how many taxpayer dollars come into this school.

Therefore, everyone should have the right to know exactly just where that money is going.