Professor's Paychecks Feel Recession Pinch - JENNIFER BROOKS, the Tennessean

Amid all the budget cuts, buyouts and belt-tightening to hit universities over the past year, there's more bad news for Tennessee professors and their paychecks. A new report by the American Association of University Professors found that faculty salaries saw their worst year in 2009 than at any time in the past 50 years. Nationwide, salaries increased 1.2 percent over the year before — less than the rate of inflation — as states slashed higher education funding and universities responded by freezing wages, buying out senior faculty and bringing on more part-time, low-wage teaching staff.