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Syracuse University senior Kelsey Aberbach and her roommate sat in their living room eager to discover who they matched with for the SU Marriage Pact. When Aberbach opened her email, she noticed the email address of her match was the name of an SU student. Yet the supposed name of her match did not seem to be associated with an existing person.

In response, Aberbach closed her computer and laughed.

“I got catfished by the Marriage Pact,” Aberbach texted her friends.

The Marriage Pact is a growing project available at 88 colleges and universities in which students can opt-in to fill out a survey with various types of questions: personal habits, political views, values and even sexual preferences. After filling out the pact, its algorithm determines who is the perfect match for each user based on mutual preferences.

In an email sent to participants from the SU Marriage Pact, there were 3,141 students who filled out the survey.

“The whole activity became a big joke around campus,” Aberbach said. “I didn’t take any of it seriously.”

Among those participants was junior Daniel Saligman, who filled out the survey with three of his co-hosts as a bit for their Z89 Z Morning Zoo radio show. The hosts’ pact results were used as content for the show. In one episode, which aired Wednesday, Saligman and his hosts were joined by their matches live on air.

Saligman was matched with his water polo teammate’s roommate. He said the matching algorithm reminded him of the “Hang the DJ” episode of Netflix’s “Black Mirror,” which presents a real-life dating system.

“It’s an interesting thought experiment when you receive your match,” Saligman said. “Someone who’s just a completely neutral character in my life who I’ve said a maximum of 10 words to was indicated by a computer to be a good romantic match for me.”

Senior Nicki MacMaster was inspired to launch the Marriage Pact at SU after she saw a TikTok of students at the University of Virginia reacting to their matches.

She visited the Marriage Pact website and filled out a form requesting a partnership with SU. The service was eager to launch a new campus chapter. A month later, they contacted MacMaster to notify her that she was selected to organize the new service.

To generate buzz on campus, MacMaster said she and her team learned a lot about social media marketing and tactics. As an exercise science major, MacMaster had no background in marketing. Yet, she designed posters, flyers and sent texts to friends in hopes of growing the matching pool.

Hailey Hoang | Photo Editor

“I learned a lot about the power of just sending a text to somebody and having them send one to another person urging them to participate,” MacMaster said.

In addition to MacMaster’s involvement in launching the Marriage Pact, she also had a team of four fellow students, including sophomore Jennalyn Williamson.

Even those who helped launch the Marriage Pact, like Williamson, experienced an unexpected outcome from the matching process. She said she quickly received an Instagram DM from her match, telling her that he had “no intentions” of continuing anything romantic and that he was “sorry.”

“A lot of my friends never heard back from their matches and he immediately told me that he had a girlfriend and did the questionnaire as a joke,” Williamson said.

The algorithm for this year’s match pool “couldn’t find conventional matches for an unlucky 1104 participants,” SU Marriage Pact told participants who received friend matches in an email.

Williamson said this data skew was due to the fact that more heterosexual women filled out the form and there weren’t enough heterosexual men in the pool to match them with.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be an exact 50/50 ratio, but I didn’t think it was going to be as skewed,” Williamson said.

Unlike those participants, freshman Nola Hollyer was matched with someone of her preferred gender, who was a familiar face. Her match lives in the same dorm as her and two floors down. She wanted to see who she was compatible with.

“I thought it would be nice to expand my circle and find another person to wave to on the way to class,” Hollyer said.

Hollyer’s attitude toward the activity fits MacMaster’s desire to bring the Marriage Pact to SU. MacMaster said that as it gets cold and the sun sets earlier, people stick to their own friend groups, meaning there’s less of a chance to meet new people.

Though Hollyer didn’t get a friend match, she said that she would not participate in the matchmaking activity if it returned to SU in the future. Hollyer values meeting someone in person and will look to that in her future romantic endeavors, since dating apps are not for her.

If it returns to campus next year, though, Aberbach — who got a fake match — encourages students to participate because it’s fun.

“I honestly thought it would bring a new social aspect to campus,” MacMaster said. “I hope people reach out to their matches and get excited about the possibility of a new connection.”

Published on October 3, 2024 at 12:49 am

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