CUPID assists new Blind Date Club

   According to first-year student, Caleb Morgan, inspiration comes from the most unexpected places sometimes, such as in a Connections course listening in on a random conversation. That is how Morgan got the idea for the USU Blind Date Club.  

     “A girl that was sitting in front of me — she mentioned, ‘I’ve never been on a blind date before’ … and a girl behind me is like, ‘Oh, I know someone I could set you up with,’” Morgan said. “I’m like, ‘Blind date. Oh, this is a problem I could — blind date club. Oh, my goodness, it’d be great!’” 

     The club is now organized by six officers and a photographer. There are two committees: event planning and advertising. The event planning committee is in charge of the activities, reserving places, planning and getting supplies while the advertising committee works on online promotion through Instagram and inviting people. The schedule consists of a meeting the second Friday of every month, and the fourth week is called blind date week. 

     “We release a form the week before, basically where you can sign up, put your name, information, times available during blind date week to go on a date, and there’s personality questions,” Morgan said.

     That information is put into a software that Morgan designed himself called CUPID-Computerized Utility for Pairing and Introductory Dating. This is where it takes the results from those forms and creates pairings based on personality and availability. 

     “I’ll send to each of those people saying, ‘Hey, you’ve been matched, meet up at whatever location at this time, this day, and we’ll give suggested date activities,’” Morgan said. 

     These activities range from food to school hosted events to pickleball. The goal is to not come back to club activities.  

     “Every club wants you to stay and never leave. This club’s like, ‘If you find your match, great. If you don’t, keep coming back,’” Morgan said. “It’s supposed to be low key and just trying to provide get[ting] to know people.” 

    First-year student Liam Markel, a new club member, went to the first club event: Casino Night. 

     “It’s nice connecting to people, and it’s fun playing cards,” Markel said.

Markel’s first blind date Friday was last week, where he met his date near the library at the SNAFU — better known as the “fry sculpture.” 

     “We [have] got to say a secret word and then we know it’s our date,” Markel said.  

     What drew Markel to the idea when he first saw the flyer was not just to make new friends. 

     “I’m in it for the dating experience, get a girlfriend, have fun,” Markel said. 

     There were some concerns from USU Risk Management when it came to safety with the dates, and rules were put in place to ensure everyone is safe. 

     “All dates are under an hour, all on campus, within walking distance. The rule is it has to be in public. We don’t want to put people in situations where they feel uncomfortable,” Morgan said. “The rule of thumb that we tell is [if] you show up for your blind date and don’t feel safe, leave.” 

     It is a not an obligation to continue to date the same person. In fact, CUPID is set up so there will be no repeated dates with the same person or match every month. 

    “There is almost 200 people, which is crazy because we started three weeks ago. But we’re doing collaborations with other clubs. We’re going to work in the future with ballroom dancing and have a ball night,” Morgan said. 

     The goal over time is to collaborate with multiple clubs and combine activities to get people more involved and open to different parts of campus. 

     “I would love to have an event every month where we do it with another club” Morgan said. “Just to create some community here at Utah State.” 

     Activities and dates are being documented by first-year student Sariah Wallis, who met Morgan at a school event. 

     “I saw him, and he [said,] ‘I’m working on this project,’ and I [said,] ‘I would love to get involved.’ He knew I do photography, so been doing a lot of behind the scenes,” Wallis said. 

      The photographs Wallis takes are on the Instagram account @usublinddateclub and serve to keep a club history.  

       The main point of the club is to establish a community at Utah State and continue to make a good environment. 

     “We’re supposed to be safe, have fun and get to know people,” Morgan said.