On Friday, February 10, love was in the air at the University Center. As Valentine's Day approached, the community knew that something needed to be done to show that Carnegie Mellon students had the guts to date other people. Action was taken, and Speed Dating and a Date Auction resulted. Thanks to the Carnegie Involvement Association (CIA) and ALLIES/Sigma Phi Epsilon/Kappa Kappa Gamma, love blossomed and a good time was had by all.

To begin the night, CIA hosted Speed Dating in the Peter/Wright/McKenna rooms for any who were interested. The event was primarily a fundraising event for CIA, although some money went to raffles and Valentine's Day candies. Speed dating is fairly new to the campus, although the Student Dormitory Council has hosted it before. If you've never heard of speed dating, here's an overview: you get a bunch of guys and a bunch of girls together, let them meet each other for three minutes at a time, then have each person write down three people who they would like to see again. If there's a match, then contact information is exchanged, and the rest is like a fairy tale.

Mark Rockwell, a CIT junior and CIA's Social Chair, said the idea was inspired by a series of Mike's Hard Lemonade commercials and the movie The 40 Year Old Virgin.

When asked why have a speed dating event at Carnegie Mellon, Rockwell responded, "It's something I think would be a lot of fun and give a bunch of people an opportunity to meet new people."

So, was the event fun and successful in connecting people within the community? According to those who were there, it was a lot of fun with lots of laughs.

But what about the match-making success rate? There were eight matches out of ten guys and nine girls.

"It went really well," Rockwell commented. "Everyone had a really good time and had a lot of fun."

After CIA's speed dating event, the Date Auction took place downstairs in Kirr Commons. Any of those lone speed daters then had their chance to buy love by being the highest bidder for a given auctionee.

The event was a joint endeavor by ALLIES, Sigma Phi Epsilon, and Kappa Kappa Gamma. All the proceeds from the event went to the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force and the National Youth AIDS foundation. All of the auctionees came from one of the three organizations sponsoring the event, but anyone could join the audience and bid on those being auctioned. There were also gift certificates that were bought or donated by area restaurants and businesses for the Valentine's dates that the auctionees would go on with those who bought them.

When asked why the groups decided to do a date auction, Vijay Jesrani, an HSS senior and President of ALLIES, said that, "The event is a lot of fun, and it is a social event," but he also noted that "we wanted to make it clear that some fraternities and sororities were open-minded and were willing to build bridges with a GLBT-related organization." Given this, the people being auctioned were auctioned to the gender of their choice.

This is the fourth year of the Date Auction, and over the three previous years about $4800 had been raised. This year, the auction rose $2875.50, which was over $1000 more than any of the previous years. According to Jesrani, one of the main reasons for the increase was because alumnus Nell Hana Hoffman's donations were matched dollar-for-dollar by her employer, Microsoft. Another contribution was a donation plate which was passed around at the end of the event, when three people were auctioned off at the spur of the moment: Jesrani and two former Date Auction hosts, Hoffman and fellow alumnus Adam Atkinson.

This fundraising activity was rather successful, and Jesrani seemed to understand why, commenting, "It's wonderful to be able to have a lot of fun and still help those affected by AIDS."

So, it seems that Carnegie Mellon students can have a romantic time while raising money and trying to connect with others across campus. You could call them desperate, but they're just trying to make Carnegie Mellon and the wider world community happier places one dollar at a time.

Editor's Note: Some Carnegie Pulse staff members were involved in the Date Auction.

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