Radicalizing grad students.

I had seen a front page story in an August edition of a neighborhood newspaper about administrator salary levels at my university, and while only 5 people were named, I decided to write the journalists (who I've met a couple times) to see if he had a bigger list.

He did, from the university's publicly available tax forms, and on the list of like 20 highest paid officials was the provost who has continually said there's no money to give students, and who has let skyrocketing fees erode student wages.

It turns out the guy made just over $610,000 last year, of which $10,000 was bonus pay.

Out of curiosity, I dropped those #s to my one (white) colleague from Mississippi who's very passive with student union stuff and doesn't want to get involved or sign up, and write away you could see him getting pissed off...  For him, I could see that was some kind of turning point, making him more open to grad student unionization.

I'm meeting with a student union member sometime after January to get them those tax forms.  I'm not emailing them, I'm going to a computer and dropping the file from my zip drive to theirs.  Those #s deserve to be out there and inform public debate on campus, but I don't want my name attached to them getting out.