Editor,
I’d like to inform your readers about a new resource on the Daily Lobo website.
Throughout the year, the Daily Lobo has tried to get the UNM administration to release an electronic copy of the UNM salary book.
Though the administration never provided what we believe to be a document of public record, we succeeded in creating a searchable and, hopefully, sortable version of the book. Before, the book resided strictly in Zimmerman Library, was available in only print version and could be checked out of the library for only two hours.
We’re still working out the glitches, but the important thing is that the document is available on the Daily Lobo website, and it makes accessible a wealth of public information on the compensation for more than 11,000 UNM employees.
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government aided in this effort, along with former Daily Lobo Editor-in-Chief Damian Garde, the Albuquerque Journal and Kara Olguin, the Daily Lobo intern.
We created this online version of the book by scanning each page of the printed version and then compiling those scanned images into a Microsoft Excel document. The document will be available temporarily in the online version of this letter, but it will occupy a permanent space on the Daily Lobo website in the near future.
The Daily Lobo continues to believe that open government is one thing journalists are allowed to be biased about. We hope that UNM students, faculty, staff and community members will use this resource and offer feedback on how to improve it.
The Daily Lobo still encourages the UNM administration to release an electronic version of a crucial public document that sits unread by University constituents, and we look forward to improving the book’s accuracy and accessibility.
We hope Daily Lobo readers will agree that this document is of great public value, and we look forward to continue serving as UNM’s independent student newspaper, both in print and online.
Pat Lohmann
Former Daily Lobo editor-in-chief
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