Professor Hides Cash on Campus but Students Fail to Read Syllabus, Miss the Clue

Each college semester, students receive syllabuses with information about the subjects in their classes, and some professors wonder how carefully their students read the documents.

A professor in Tennessee decided to find out, CNN reported Saturday.

Kenyon Wilson, associate head of performing arts for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, devised a plan. He dropped a hint in the syllabus for his music seminar class students at the beginning of the semester.

The first student who read it and checked out the locker would have found a $50 bill, free for the finding.

But not one of the 71 students in the class did. At semester’s end, the money was still lying on the floor of the locker, with a note underneath: “Congrats! Please leave your name and date so I know who found it.”

Wilson said his syllabus usually did not change significantly. However, there was some updated information regarding coronavirus protocols, and he encouraged his students to read it.

He also set the lock with a specific number in the top position so he would know if a student had tampered with it, but the combination had not been moved, he discovered when he went to check it at the end of the semester.

He shared a photo of the cash in a social media post and told CNN his students were “good sports” about the experiment.

“What academic shenanigans should I try next?” the post read:

In a social media post December 8, Facebook user Jordan Hicks said Wilson had him unlock the instrument locker where the money was stashed:

“Moral of the story- Read your syllabus. It pays,” he wrote.