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About 150 dating hopefuls with name tags plastered to their shirts strutted their stuff quick-style at the Speed Dating event Sept. 19 at the PUB.
Three times as many males as females - and one robot ?- participated in the event. Student Union and Activities Advisory Board (SUAAB) Holiday Chair Yormynnelly Grajales chose the speed dating event to coincide with National Singles Week.
"It's not necessarily for people to find dates or to find a prospective husband, but just to meet other people, even just for friendship," Grajales said.
For each round of speed dating, participants chatted at a table adorned with a single red rose. After a few minutes, the emcees announced it was time to move on.
"This is the new millennium," said one emcee. "This is how we do it now." The event was divided into two 40-minute intervals.
"During the first 40-minute interval, the guys move between tables. During the second 40-minute interval, the girls move to other tables," Grajales said.
The event was emceed by Jonathan "GNO" White, Executive Vice Chair of SUAAB, and Roderick Goudy, also known as Rock Baby. They dished dating advice between the five-minute rounds.
"If she's talking on her cell phone, she's not that into you," White said.
They brought to the stage a woman who was doing just that during an early round of speed dating.
"Who were you calling?" asked an emcee. She said she had been talking to a friend on the other side of The PUB's glass wall, who was wondering what she was doing in there.
The emcees singled out another speed-dater, a man with a shaved head who said he was representing a woman unable to make it to the event. He recited her vital stats, including her hair and eye color.
"There are rules in place," Grajales said, "to prevent stalking. People won't be able to use their last name, and no contact information can be exchanged, no phone number, no last names, no email. Also we ask them to keep the conversation friendly."
Participants were each given a card upon registration at the event. On one side of the card they wrote their name and email address.
On the other side they wrote down the names of the three people who they would most like to see again. SUAAB representatives collected them at the end of the event.
"If two people select each other, we email both of them with the other one's email," Grajales said.
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