Inside Speed Dating

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I walked into a fairly decent-sized room. All day I had waited for this experience. An experience I probably wouldn’t have again soon. I came in as number three. Pizza and soda were placed out invitingly on a table to my left. Alyce Johnson, a UVU student who purposed this study, handed me a nametag with my number and took my picture.

On Feb. 25 and 26 at UVU, in the rooms SC 213 A&B, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:45 p.m., a very nontraditional type of speed dating occurred.

As was stated in a previously news article, this type of speed dating was considered “untraditional.” The actual speed dating took place with two curtains between the boys and girls. Each ‘date’ was no longer than three minutes. No one saw whom he or she spoke to. No one knew anything about the other, at least not physically. Not until the very end. Even then, neither sex saw the other in person.

stock_-2The speed dating was purposed as a study for Johnson’s Honor’s project.

“I had the idea in class one day, and thought hey, I can do that,” Johnson said, as the female participants waited for the others to arrive.

The female and male participants were placed in two different rooms while each person arrived. The girls arrived at 5:00 p.m., fifteen minutes before the men.

There were supposed to be fifteen boys and fifteen girls, but only twelve boys and fourteen girls were present on Monday and eight girls and fifteen boys on Tuesday. Not exactly what Johnson had in mind, but it worked.

Because of the lack of females, only certain chairs could be used. The men had to take turns. Hopefully, they used this time wisely. But given that some of the questions were generic, it didn’t appear to be so.

Because of the lack of females, the study didn’t last until 7:00 pm, as long as Johnson had hoped. It went until 6:45 pm, long enough for the guys to finish off the leftover pizza and soda, and short enough to catch the 811 bus.

It’s possible something like this may happen again. For those who missed out, there will be different times. This just didn’t seem to be their night. It’s possible that the word was just not spread far enough, but at least students of BYU and UVU, and even one not in school, helped out enough for this Johnson’s honors project to work.