The president of the United States earns $400,000 every year he oversees a country of nearly 300 million people.

The president of Penn State earned about $312,504 in 1999 for overseeing a university of considerably less people. That was the last time the university released the dollar amount from Penn State's budget that goes directly into Graham Spanier's pocket.

For six years we haven't known how significantly the salary of Penn State's president has increased or decreased. But Penn State's own policy of "don't ask, don't tell" is finally being tested by the court system.

The university is waiting to hear if their appeal will be heard by the State Supreme Court. A recent decision by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania stated that salary information for football coach Joe Paterno and three other top administrators should be released.

Whether or not the Harrisburg Patriot-News' motivation for filing the lawsuit is simply lurid curiosity is irrelevant when it comes to the students who pay tuition to attend this university. We deserve to know.

Penn State claims the reason for not releasing faculty salaries is simply privacy -- that professors would not want their salaries public.

And officials say that releasing those numbers would impede upon the university's ability to compete in a market for quality instructors. Fair enough.

But wouldn't professors, who obviously want to make as much money as possible, want their salaries public for the exact reason Penn State claims to protect their privacy?

It's basic economics. More competition results in higher-paid professors.

Then there's the issue of what to do with Paterno. Penn State officials have said that coaches' salaries are paid completely by the athletic department, which funds itself. Therefore, the salaries of Paterno and other coaches are not connected at all to taxpayer dollars.

Maybe he's not connected directly to our taxes, but Paterno is certainly connected to most Pennsylvania taxpayers in one way or another. We're the ones who fill Beaver Stadium every Saturday during football season. Who do they think pays for tickets?

Because we are a public university receiving funds from the state, it shouldn't be a matter of whether Penn State deems it appropriate to release such information by determining its relationship with the state at will.

Perhaps officials are afraid that by releasing salary information, incoming students will begin to question what exactly is at the heart of Penn State's mission.