Kenyon Wilson, a professor at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, has made it abundantly clear that college students NEVER read the syllabus.
Wilson posted on Facebook about how he "hid" a $50 bill on campus, and he helpfully put all the information about how to find the cash prize on the second page of his syllabus.
There are more than 70 students in this class, and apparently not one of them read the syllabus all the way through.
According to the New York Times:
"Free to the first who claims; locker one hundred forty-seven; combination fifteen, twenty-five, thirty-five," read the passage in the syllabus. But when the semester ended on Dec. 8, students went home and the cash was unclaimed...
Professor Wilson said he wanted to include the hidden clues to brighten up the semester during the pandemic.
"Teaching in a pandemic, I'm trying to do creative things and, you know, make it interesting," he said on Saturday. "The syllabus is a really dry document. I mean, it's not supposed to be exciting to read, but I thought if my students are going through and reading it, I might as well reward them."
Professor Wilson, the associate head of performing arts, surmised that the prize remained unclaimed during the semester because if someone had found it, the student "would not have stayed quiet about it," he said. Also, at the start of the semester, he set the combination lock at the noon position and it remained unchanged."
Live shot of every student, now on winter break, going back and finding the clue in Wilson's syllabus:
Okay, to be fair, as a former college student myself, I totally get this. I am sure I never once read the entire syllabus for one of my classes.
Who knows how much free money I might have missed out on?
