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The Dartmouth
March 29, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Campus Cupid creators to launch website for grads to access

Four months after Campus Cupid's launch promised students a new means of finding love at Dartmouth, the dating service has a new website in the works.

While the timing of the website leaves graduating seniors without an opportunity to take advantage of its services while on campus, the creators hope it will spark a new interest in the dating service, which has competed for interest with another recent online match-up site, thefacebook.com.

The website is not yet up and running, but creators Jessica Ward '04 and Lisa Volpe '04 said underclassmen have expressed interest in continuing in Campus Cupid after graduation.

Still, the website begs the question of whether or not students will embrace a service that many doubted in the first place.

Kate Davison '07 sent in a profile for the first round but didn't actually choose any profiles from the ones she was sent.

"I wasn't sure if people were taking it seriously and writing genuine self-descriptions," Davison said.

Jess Blanch '05 was not on campus for Winter term but said her perception of Campus Cupid was that people did not take it very seriously. "The whole thing just seemed like people were making fun of the fact that [Campus Cupid] was put together," Blanch said.

Other students feared that the anonymity of the profiles was being jeopardized because the creators knew some of the students who were joining Campus Cupid. One junior said she is no longer interested in using the service since being confronted by a male student who knew that she had highlighted his profile as one she was interested in. The male was friends with the creators and had seen the names of all the females who had chosen his profile.

Kaelin Goulet '07 said she used Campus Cupid upon its inception and was successfully matched with a date. Goulet said the date, which did not lead to any subsequent dates was "fine" and that she would use the service again if it were continued.

Some students claim to have noticed a change in the air since Campus Cupid arrived on the scene despite not involving themselves with it.

"I have not been meeting girls through Campus Cupid per se, but I feel like Campus Cupid just has so much good karma that some of it rubbed off on me without me even knowing," Dave Gardner '05 told The Dartmouth.

Some of this karma may have also come from the introduction of thefacebook.com, an online directory service started at Harvard University. Thefacebook.com rivaled Campus Cupid for student interest when it was expanded to include Dartmouth at the end of Winter term. Profiles on thefacebook.com allow students to include pictures, classes they are taking and other information not included in Campus Cupid profiles.

While thefacebook.com is not marketed as a dating resource, some of the questions ask students to list relationship status and their romantic interests. Students can scan thefacebook.com for people with mutual interests or limit their search to members of a specific athletic team, Greek house or student organization.

Due to thefacebook.com's connection with several colleges and universities, some students take advantage of the anonymity that being at a different school provides. Many Dartmouth women have commented on getting messages from men from other colleges asking them to "chat" sometime and offering up an e-mail address with which to do so. Some of these mystery suitors, upon further research, proved to have few friends at their own schools, but listed as friends a plethora of female students from across the country.