SHANNON URTNOWSKI
Living Editor
Back-to-school shopping this year has taken on a whole new meaning for incoming Pepperdine students. Yes, Bed, Bath & Beyond still has great sales for bedding, lamps and alarm clocks and Macy’s continues to have clothes galore to satisfy any empty closet, but students can now turn to their laptops and PCs for the room addition they won’t be able to find in local stores — a roommate.
For many, Facebook and Pepperdine’s new online roommate search portal, Converge, have proven to be perfect forums for seeking out prospective roommates.
In creating Converge, which launched in early May, the Housing Office built upon its past roommate matching method.
Though the two sites did not work together directly in this effort, students used both Converge and Facebook to finalize their living arrangement requests.
“I think Converge is really nice because it gives you an outlet to message back and forth, but Facebook is nice because you can see pictures and see the person in a natural environment,” said freshman Kristen Anderson.
Early in the process, most incoming students turned to Converge, hoping the site would serve as a communication ice breaker among their Pepperdine peers.
Previously, housing contracts would include seven lifestyle questions that were used to pair roommates when none was requested. Students still have this option, but Converge helps ease the process for both students and Housing.
“We started using Converge to give students an opportunity to fill out a more in-depth questionnaire and so that they could email other students and feel empowered in the roommate selection process if they so chose to,” wrote Assistant Director of Housing, Julianna Wilkes, in an e-mail.
Through Converge, students are asked to answer 47 multiple choice questions regarding their personality and room environment preferences, such as what time of night they prefer to go to bed, and rate different areas of interest.
After submitting their answers, students are matched with other registered users on a compatibility percentage basis.
Some freshmen thought the process seemed like a dating service, though it did not serve as one.
“It was kind of like eHarmony, but it was funny,” said freshman Maia Knudsen-Schule of the dating site that was created by Pepperdine alum Neil Clark Warren.
This did not stop Knudsen-Schule from ultimately finding a roommate through Converge, however.
Though the site allows students to message their prospective matches, a large number did so solely for general information.
Many students, including Knudsen-Schule and Anderson, decided to take their newfound knowledge and turn to Facebook.
“I talked to people on both, but Facebook was helpful because it let me see people in a different way than just talking,” Anderson said of the sites.
Many of the incoming students agreed that Converge would have been better had it allowed pictures to be uploaded, which is something that Facebook offers.
Facebook provides a forum for students to get to know one another underneath surface impressions, delving past what multiple choice questions can answer about one’s personality.
Thus, it took a more prominent role in some students’ roommate search. For example, freshman Alex Pennekamp organized a group where he and other students unsuccessful with Converge could gather to take matters into their own hands – Pepperdine Roommate Forum (Converge Sucks!)
Pennekamp said he meant no disrespect in the name of the group and that Converge was rather the inspiration for his efforts.
“I thought it was a good start for students to connect to each other, but I did think it had a lot of flaws,” Pennekamp said. “If they worked on it, they could definitely work it out and make it usable.”
Pennekamp is not alone in his feelings, as his group has grown to 147 members since Converge’s summer launch.
With so many incoming students together in the same group with the same aim, it is no wonder that successful matches were made, Pennekamp being one of the cases.
Taking into consideration students’ input, Director of Housing Jim Brock wrote in an e-mail that the Housing Office will be doing an assessment of Converge during the fall to make necessary improvements. The Web site is in its first year, and glitches are to be expected.
Brock said he believes students can benefit from the site even if its use does not result in an ultimate roommate match.
“Another side benefit is that, from what we have, even if they didn’t pick each other, many of the students in this year’s class got to know each other,” Brock said.
Converge did show positive results, though, something Facebook contributed to in many instances.
“Typically we would maybe have a dozen new students who requested their roommate since they already knew someone coming to Pepperdine,” Wilkes said. “However, with the implementation of Converge, this year we had 474 new students mutually request roommates.”
8-28-2006
