A K LEO T H E
V O I C E
Ser v i ng t he st udents of t he Un iversit y of Hawa i ‘ i at M ā noa si nce 1922
DANIEL JACKSON Staff Reporter
S U N DAY, N OV. 28 A Hale Noelani resident reported that his black 2010 GTX mo-ped valued at $1,175 was stolen after he had left it parked unlocked at the Noelani mo-ped rack.
SAT U R DAY, N OV. 27 A Hale Kahawai resident reported finding her credit card missing, and after checking her statement found three fraudulent charges totaling $57.66. She later found a receipt in her roommate’s beach bag with her credit card number on it and contacted Campus Security. F R I DAY, N OV. 26 A Frear Hall resident reported that her 2009 green Yugo mo-ped valued at $1,500 was stolen from near the entrance to the Frear Hall mo-ped cage after she had parked it there unsecured while unable to access her reserved parking space in the cage. A parent called complaining that her son was involved with a religious cult originating at or sponsored by UH Mānoa.
T H U R S DAY, N OV. 25 A Campus Security officer stopped a male pushing a red and black Sym mo-ped in front of the Law Library after noticing that there were See CampusBeat, next page
Travel tips Southeast Asia survival guide Features 3
Facing Facebook Social networking blues Opinions 6
W E DN E S DAY, DE C . 1, 2 010 to T H U R S DAY, DE C . 2 , 2 010
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Volu me 105 Issue 52
Civil Beat publishes UH Mānoa salaries SAM K ING Investigative Reporter Did you ever want to know how much your professor gets paid? John Temple, editor of the new O‘ahu-based online news service Civil Beat, thinks you might be interested. That is why Civil Beat has published all UH Mānoa faculty and staff salaries on their website earlier this year. “I thought that students would be particularly interested [in the salaries because] students are directly encountering the system,” said Temple. “[They] can evaluate for themselves: is Professor X doing a fantastic job?” To help further this quest for transparency, Ka Leo is publishing a downloadable Excel sheet of all UH Mānoa faculty, executive, civil service and A P T employees’ salaries. Emphasizing the lack of transparency, you can see that the civil service and A P T employees’ salaries are nearly impossible to figure out. That is what the new sheriffs in town think, anyway. Temple and his staff of reporter/hosts (so called because they “host” ‘Beat Ups’ on hot political topics of the day in addition to writing) want to know how the government is serving the voters, including how UHM is serving its students. More importantly, the new sheriffs want the government to be able to prove it. Started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, Civil Beat’s deep pockets means they are not scared to take the local political powers to task. Do you ever wonder why the salaries of union employees at UH Mānoa is a secret? Temple’s theory: “Unions are a principle base, a foundational element of the Democratic Party, and the last thing unions want is, both internally and externally, the public to understand what the com-
Beat’s solution, is to use investigative journalism to “push” the Democratic Party to improve. Civil Beat’s favorite method of “pushing” is to “get to the primary source documents,” said Temple. To get access to primary documents, Civil Beat fi les Freedom of Information requests to obtain such materials as all the names and salaries of UHM employees. “Salaries represent 60 percent of the state annual budget ... Employee information is a matter of public record ... We requested names, titles and salaries for all full-time and temporary public workers,” points out Nanea Kalani. Kalani covers Civil Beat’s financial reporting. She thinks it is perfectly natural for the public to have access to all of the government’s financial data. “How do we know that our money is being put to good use?” she asks. Education is one area where Civil Beat worries money is not necessarily being put to good use. How does Civil Beat measure good use of education dollars? “We focus our education coverage on two questions: everything related to student achievement and everything related to accountability for that student achievement. What systems do we have in place to make sure that students are achieving to the maximum of their ability?” asked Temple. Temple was shocked to disSTEVE WAMPLER/FLICKR cover how antiquated the DepartAPT and Civil Servant designated positions remain hidden per union negotiations. ment of Education is in Hawai‘i. to run Civil Beat, Temple agreed “We asked them a simple quespensation of public employees is.” Why has the Republican Party because he was in accord with tion: How many teachers have not been able to capitalize on Lin- Civil Beat’s idealism and their you fi red? They can’t tell us. How gle’s success? Temple: “I think what focus on investigative journalism can you have a Department of Education that can’t tell you how you saw in the 2010 General election as a means of public service. “I think the danger with so many teachers it’s fi red? That eswas that the Republican Party became too dominated by religion at much dominance by one party sentially means they haven’t fi red the expense of governance and pol- is that it’s more difficult to intro- anyone ... they literally answered icy, and I think that alienated people duce new ideas into a society that ... ‘We don’t have that data.’” doesn’t have an alternative parwho might have voted Republican.” See Faculty salaries, next page When Omidyar asked Temple ty.” Temple’s solution, and Civil