AUDREY REED
News Editor
There are some things about Pepperdine that I may never understand. Like why does Pep Xpress administrative services shut down at midnight? Or why must students sign twice, once on the pink slip, once in the binder, for each package that comes to a student mailbox?
But one aspect of Pepperdine culture I cannot get past, is the lack of on-campus dating.
Sometimes a couple will beat the odds and emerge from the vast sea of single students, but this is indeed a rarity.
The other day I was riding with a girlfriend on campus. After two cars of rowdy guys passed our car yelling and cat-calling, my friend jokingly said, “That’s the most action we’ll get all night.”
Besides these few isolated events, Pepperdine is in a dating dry spell. Sister schools like Abilene Christian University and Harding are known for not only giving degrees, but also marriage licenses.
Even professors notice. More than one has spent a moment or two during class time to encourage students to go on dates.
This problem is not unique to Pepperdine. Across the board, dating is becoming less formal, and as a result, sometimes unidentifiable. As the average age when people are getting married increases, the urgency of dating is postponed.
But, there’s definitely more of a problem at Pepperdine. I’ve spent three years thinking about why this could be, and here are the results.
1. Attractive students: That’s right, our attractive student body, or should I say bodies, contribute to the problem. One would think that hot bodies would encourage such behavior, but it’s actually working against us. We are all spoiled with eye-candy every day, and we have put off dating because there might be a tanner, blonder, better built person around the HAWC corner.
2. Male-female ratio: The incoming freshman class is 59 percent female and 41 percent male. Women are aware that they are the majority, and guys are aware that they have a really good situation. I hate to reduce love to a science, but this is a simple case of supply and demand.
3. Online dating: It’s not just for nerdy, unattractive people. With the Internet becoming more popular and trusted, maybe students are opting to date online. However, the evidence to support this theory comes in the form of the Web site ChurchOfChristSingles. com, which has more than 4,000 members. The site costs less than $50 for a year-long membership. Looking at the current state of dating (and reading the success stories online), it could be money well spent.
4. The X-factor: Above all, there’s a general mood on campus that prohibits dating. Pepperdine is a giant no-flirt zone. There’s not much hitting-on or even interaction between strangers.
I’m not asking for everyone to grab the nearest person of the opposite sex and get down on one knee to propose. But maybe, if there were more on-campus courting, I wouldn’t want to check my degree audit on Pep Xpress past midnight.
09-15-2005
