As students sit daydreaming or scribbling in class, they’ll now be able to read how much the instructor teaching them is being paid on The Daily Reveille’s website.
But they won’t be limited to seeing only instructors’ salaries. Students and anyone else interested can look up the salary of any faculty member who works for the University with The Daily Reveille’s new salary database for the 2012 fiscal year.
The salary information was obtained from the salaries of the non-classified employees document, which is located at the Hill Memorial Library reserves desk. The document was scanned, processed through optical character recognition and hand-cleaned.
The salary information shown in the database is in accordance with the data provided by the Hill Memorial Library; however, portions of salaries, which are generated through private foundations, grants and other means, are not present in the data. This is especially prevalent when it comes to the salary information of coaches.
According to the database, almost 15 percent of faculty members at the University rake in salaries of at least $100,000, while less than 2 percent make at least $200,000.
About 85 percent of the University’s faculty salaries come in at $99,999 or less, while 17 faculty members earn less than $10,000 per year.
The five buildings on campus that house the highest paid employees — based on salary averages in the building — include the Football Operations Building, with an average salary of $179,188; the Chemical Engineering Building, with $102,067; the Business Education Complex, with $101,780; the Electrical Engineering Building, with $94,774; and the Athletic Administration Building, with an average of $94,121.
The five campus buildings with the lowest salary averages include Francioni Hall, with $33,042; the Dairy Science Building and Shop, with $32,664; the LSU Child Care Center, with $28,957; Sturgis Hall, with $25,172; and the Food Science Building, with an average of $20,292.
When viewing the database’s maps, some employees will not appear because no address information could be obtained for them. Address information was retrieved from the University’s online directory.
Aside from most University coaches and administrative positions, which hold incomplete data in their salaries because they are paid unknown additional amounts from various foundations, Kevin Smith, LSU Foundation James C. Bolton Distinguished Professor of chemistry, is the highest paid faculty member, earning a salary of $252,654.
Ourso Family Distinguished Professor of Information Systems Rudolf Hirschheim at the E.J. Ourso College of Business trails Smith with a salary of $240,057. Hirschheim is also the highest paid nine-month employee.
Jennifer Gilkes, psychiatrist at the Student Health Center, holds the third highest salary of $233,333.
The fourth highest paid faculty member is Earl Plummer, a physics and astronomy professor and special assistant to the vice chancellor for research. He earns a salary of $230,000.
Rounding out the top five salaries is Luigi Gaetano Marzilli, professor of chemistry, earning a salary of $213,820.
The highest paid alumni professor recorded in the database is Robin McCarley, who teaches analytical, surface and materials chemistry. McCarley’s salary measures at $139,660.

Scroll to the bottom of the article for the full-size visualization.
The figures were taken from the latest documents of the operating budget as of July 1, 2012. The documents were provided by the Hill Memorial Library reserve desk. The figures will show some faculty and administrative members who have left LSU since that date.