Titillation Or Legitimate Journalistic Endeavor?

The University of Alaska Anchorage faculty and staff got an email from the director of human resources Friday warning them that basic information - including salaries - would be released  shortly because of a Public Records Act request. You can see the memo below.

 This would seem a good time to direct folks to a 2014 post - Is Publishing Public Employee Salaries The Financial Equivalent of Showing Bare Breasts? - that looks more closely at the logic of publishing the salaries of public employees in such detail, and generally addresses the title question.

Here's the heart of the memo people got:

"I'm writing today to advise you that UAA, within the next week, will release employee information in response to a request for information under the Alaska Public Records Act (AS 40.25.110-.220), the State Personnel Act (AS 39.25.080(b)) and Regents' Policy (P04.01.062; P06.02.010-.100). Certain employee information is designated as public information by the references cited and must be released if requested. This information release will include the following for Faculty (but not adjunct faculty) and Administrators employed at the UAA MAU as of August 12, 2016: 

-- Employee name 

-- Employment Type (Executive Officer, Faculty, or Senior Administrator) 

-- Date of Employment (Original hire date) 

-- Job Title 

-- Annual Salary 

-- Campus (UAA, KPC, Kodiak, Mat-Su, PWSC) 

Ron Kamahele, Director UAA Human Resource Services"

Again, my discussion of the issues surrounding such releases is here.