Online OSU pay data a welcome move toward transparency
Ohio State University’s recent move to make its employees’ salary information available on a searchable online database is a refreshing and welcome gesture of transparency by one of the state’s largest public institutions.
Anyone who is simply curious about taxpayerfunded salaries, or who wants to analyze the university’s compensation system, can find the information at https:// hr.osu.edu/services/ statistics-reports/.
We have lamented more than once in this space that OSU can be maddeningly slow and/or resistant to releasing public information. So offering up the salary information, unprompted, is remarkable.
The Dispatch typically asks for and receives a copy of the previous year’s salary information each spring, and we use it to spot and analyze trends as well as to inform stories about specific employees. Now anyone can do so without filing a public-records request and waiting.
Before reaching any hard conclusions, those who might use the information should double-check with the university to make sure they aren’t misinterpreting numbers.
Misunderstanding is easy to do; for example, calendar-year earnings for someone who was hired midyear won’t reflect their true salary. Some people hold more than one position and title and their pay might be reported partially under each; total earnings for some people might include bonuses or other one-time payments that aren’t part of their annual salary.
University spokesman Chris Davey said the salarydata release is part of Ohio State’s effort to embrace transparency in the digital age, when “public” tends to mean “online.” He said the university also intends to make relevant records available as news stories break. For example, an announcement regarding its investigation of academic misconduct by former researcher ChingShih Chen included a link to the investigative report.
Such information has been public for a long time, but most people who aren’t journalists or investigators likely wouldn’t take the time to ask for records officially or didn’t know how. Making them generally available without special request is a significant advance. We congratulate OSU and hope this signals a new era of openness.
Spring graduation season is here, and teens across central Ohio are collecting kudos for their hard work in class and their accomplishments on athletic fields, in the arts and elsewhere.
It’s especially gratifying to see special recognition such as Olentangy Orange High School gave recently to 13 graduating seniors who are beginning military careers.
Signing ceremonies for top athletes accepting college scholarships long have been a school-yearend tradition, and many schools in recent years have added special ceremonies to recognize those who’ve earned major academic scholarships.
Giving the same honor to those who’ve chosen to give years of their young lives to military service is appropriate and overdue. While it isn’t a happy thing that the United States is in a period of heightened military activity, the sacrifices of those who choose to take on that burden deserve to be recognized and celebrated.
Such an effort apparently is still rare; military recruiters who spoke at the Olentangy Orange event said they were impressed with the school’s gesture.
So are we, but we’re most impressed with the young people who will be serving their country. We wish them safe service and lifetimes of accomplishment.