If a student wants to skip a class, there’s little a professor can do to change that. No amount of pandering to their sense of academic guilt will convince them to skip their afternoon nap. Sometimes, there’s not a point deduction big enough to make a student roll out of bed for an 8 a.m. class.

But where academic bribery and threats haven’t worked, a new rhetoric might: It costs an estimated $43.18 every time a student skips an hour of class, according to Accounts Receivable Director Sherri Aldridge. If a student misses an entire week of one class, it costs approximately $129.54, assuming the student is taking 15 credit hours. If a student misses all his classes for an entire week, it costs approximately $647.67. Every college student is, at one time or another, strapped for cash. And tuition isn’t going to stop rising. It makes sense, then, that students wouldn’t want to waste that much money in return for a little more sleep.

Maybe next time, thinking about that amount of money will help students climb out of bed on time. They’ll consider if skipping class because it’s a beautiful day is worth that $43 or not. Professors, instead of hoping that students feel a bit of guilt for skipping class, can rely on a much more realistic worry for students – their wallets. This bite out of their pocketbooks will make students take the consequences of skipping class more seriously than any dent in their total points.