It's no secret that when it comes to competitive salaries, the University of Wisconsin scores below average. That's why system officials have decided to try to make it harder for other universities to steal faculty members and staff.

The system's master plan to protect some of its most precious assets: remove salary information from the Internet.

While such information is still available upon request — it is a matter of public record, after all — those seeking to find out what a given professor makes per year will just have to work a little harder to find what they are looking for.

It seems like a strategic, common-sense move for the UW System to keep secret the statistics that have proven to be its Achilles heel. However, by limiting outsiders' access to public information, the system is sending several bad messages to its employees and the general taxpaying public.

The measure does not stow away salary numbers in a hidden lockbox; institutions that are determined enough will merely have to jump through a few hoops to find the information they need — and most of them certainly have the chutzpah to do so.

While the university system is rightly worried about losing faculty due to a lack of competitiveness, it should continue working with the state to acquire more funding. Making public information harder to come by is not the answer.

And for those who believe faculty members' salaries should be obscured as a matter of personal privacy, taxpayers' rights supersede this argument. Professionals in Wisconsin's world of academia know full well that they are state employees, and they knowingly forfeit certain protections upon signing on the dotted line.

The UW System should be moving toward policies that promote transparency rather than paring it back. Following several incidents that strained the relationship between the UW System and the Legislature, the system should be doing everything in its power to mend the gap, not widen it.