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LOGAN — The holiday spirit was alive and well this winter in Cache Valley, where a professor's trust test turned into a "faith in humanity fund."
Journalism professor Matthew LaPlante had not planned on doing a social experiment over the holiday break, but when he reached into his coat pocket one day he found an opportunity too good to pass up.
LaPlante said he was getting ready to leave on vacation and wanted to make sure he had enough cash to give his shuttle driver a holiday tip. He reached into his pocket and found two $20 bills, enough for the driver and a little fun.
"I thought, ‘I'm going to pin this $20 on the corkboard' — I don't even know why — and I looked at it and I thought, ‘I wonder if it will still be here when I get back," LaPlante said.
The professor said he thought it would be a "cool experiment" not only to challenge people not to take the money, but to give them a reason not to take it: the money belonged to someone else.
"Professor LaPlante's first annual holiday truth test," he wrote on the back of a business card. "If it survives the break, this bill will be donated to the Shriner's Hospital for Children in Salt Lake City."
The money more than survived: it multiplied. A professor at the school sent LaPlante an email to tell him people had started pinning money to the board. At one point, someone pinned up a dixie cup to collect change. And a student retitled the "truth test": it became "The Matthew LaPlante Faith in Humanity Fund."
By the time LaPlante returned after the holiday break, $20 had become $46.63 (and a candy cane).
"I was just curious to see — and a little optimistic, I guess, that the money would survive … I certainly didn't think that any students were going to post additional money," LaPlante said. "I think it was just for kicks, but it was remarkable."
