Take about 70 pages in a three-ring binder nestled in Middleton Library and add in a little more exposure. That’s all it took to get people fired up.The newly published employee salary database on our Web site, lsureveille.com, has sparked a wave of controversy once we made the records “more public.”Besides revealing employees’ salaries, the database has also shown people around campus need a reality check.If you’re unhappy your name and salary are printed in the database, realize this: You work for the government.That’s right — our tax dollars are paying for you to survive. And we have a right to know where those tax dollars are going, whether you’re offended by it or not.Many metro newspapers around the country publish databases with the salaries and names of every government employee in the country. They’re very popular and controversial.It’s understandable knowing your colleagues’ salaries could make things awkward in the workplace. But maybe that’s because the person down the hall makes more money, and you don’t think that’s fair.From a personal standpoint, I know professors I’ve had in the past undoubtedly don’t deserve their salaries. On the contrary, I’ve seen others are ridiculously underpaid.In the next few months, The Daily Reveille will sort through this database and try to identify inconsistencies. These salaries can be broken down by traits like age, sex and race. Those should provide some interesting trends.The salaries can also be broken down by positions – professors, instructors, deans and many more. You can go even further by looking at employees by department and why people with the same titles have different salaries.The point is there will be — without a doubt — many stories that originate from this database. Everyone should take a look at the database, and participate in a little bit of citizen journalism.If you look at the database and see something that looks strange, leave a comment at the bottom of the page.This University needed a dose of real transparency. Almost everything that happens here is public record — salaries, W-2 forms, e-mails, budgets, financial statements. The list is endless.So maybe some people need to grow some thicker skin because this type of old-school journalism isn’t going anywhere as long as I’m here.And I love public records — so stay tuned for more.——Contact Kyle Whitfield at [email protected]