A long-standing Board of Trustees policy is keeping Penn State President Graham Spanier's salary hidden, unable to be viewed by the public's curious eye.

Tysen Kendig, Penn State spokesman, said Spanier's salary is not available because it is considered personal information.

The school is also exempt from Pennsylvania's Right-to-know Act, which requires government agencies to provide copies of public records to state residents.

The last figure available for Spanier's salary was from tax records discovered in 1999 that said he received $379,516, plus $15,715 in benefits and deferred compensation and $4,258 in expense compensation.

No recent data is available, and the public, namely tuition-paying students, are left to speculate.

Has Spanier's salary increased? How much has it increased? Where are students' tuition dollars going?

Spanier has no legal obligation to make his salary or benefits information public, but does he have a moral obligation?

Some student organizations, including the Graduate and Fixed-Term Employee Organization (GFTEO) think so, GFTEO Organizing Committee Chair James Barton said.

Salary information was uncovered in 2001 when GFTEO members found two IRS Form 990 documents that listed the income levels for top university administrators' for 1998 and 1999.

It shouldn't take incessant prying by student organizations to discover this information.

The highest salary received by any college president was $891,400, earned by Shirley Ann Jackson of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y, according a Chronicle of Higher Education study. Of public university presidents, Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Michigan received the highest salary last year, making $677,500, according to the study.

Penn State students may be wondering if Spanier makes this much.

Other state-related universities, including the University of Pittsburgh and Temple University, also do not release presidents' salary information. Many other Big Ten schools also do not make this information available.

In light of decreasing state appropriations and skyrocketing tuition costs, it is more important than ever that Spanier, and other presidents of universities, speak out about this information.

He needs to avoid criticism and inaccurate speculation by students who may claim that their tuition dollars are going toward his paycheck.

Board members obviously feel Spanier's salary is appropriate, because they are the ones who approve it.

Why then are they afraid to stand behind their decision by making the information public?

There should be no reason why Spanier can't be up front about this information, unless he does have something to hide. Though he is not legally obligated, Spanier has an obligation to students to make is salary known.