The Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) implemented this year a new online roommate−pairing system designed to give incoming freshmen greater input and to reduce administrative hassle in the process.
Likened by participants to online dating database Match.com, the new system allows students to view classmates' online profiles and questionnaire responses and extend roommate invitations based on that information.
"This system gives students a chance to make a better connection, which should limit the number of moves that happen in the first few weeks of housing," Associate Bursar of Systems and Programs James Moodie said. "Students have made the connection themselves and are therefore more married to staying together."
All of this year's newly matriculated students were asked to create an online profile by answering a series of questions formulated by the Tufts Community Union Senate, according to ResLife Director Yolanda King.
After filling out the questionnaire, students had four options: They could allow the system to match them randomly based on their responses, they could ask the system to show possible matches of students who were most compatible given their answers to the questionnaire, they could specifically request someone with whom they had a prior relationship or connection, or they could power search the database, asking the system to find a roommate who met certain specific criteria.
The system's implementation is an attempt to involve students more in the selection of their roommates, as well as to update an antiquated process.
"In the past, we had students fill out a very simple questionnaire with only a couple of questions, and it was all done on paper," King said. "It was a fairly painful process."
Students who wished to be involved in the process wrote short personal introductions. Those who found an appropriate match through the program could extend a roommate invitation; if both parties agreed to the pairing, the system would provide the students with each other's e−mail addresses to continue their conversations.
Tufts students' use of the Internet to choose their roommates had been taking place long before the university made the transition this year, according to Moodie.
"A lot of people were already involved in this sort of pairing through social media sites," Moodie said. "This system just offers them a safer, more controlled space in which to do it."
In spite of the program's attempt to involve students more in the selection process, only 21 percent of the incoming class self−selected their roommate through the invitation process, according to Moodie. The remaining 79 percent accepted the matches generated by the housing software system. A total of 142 roommate invitations were declined, he said.
Freshman Claire Dunivan decided to let the system match her with a roommate rather than selecting one herself.
"I decided to fill out the questionnaire and then pretty much left the rest of it up to fate and let whatever was going to happen, happen," Dunivan said. "I looked through the profiles of a couple of the people it suggested and then just decided to leave it to the system to decide."
Freshman roommates Andrew Turk and Andrew Berman found each other through the system's compatibility search.
"The computer told us that we were 72 percent compatible, so we got on Facebook and started talking," Berman said. "We learned that we had similar schedules and interests, and figured it would be a good match."
Turk was pleased with the new system and the opportunity it offered him to choose his roommate.
"It was really nice to know that I am coming into this year with someone I am already comfortable with," Turk said. "I felt like I was showing up to live with a friend rather than a stranger."
Moodie agreed that the system allowed students to start creating a community before even arriving on campus.
"Tufts has a large international population and this new system allows them to more actively participate in the Tufts community over the summer," Moodie said. "Before this, there was no real opportunity for community building before getting to school."
The system will be used again next year, according to King, though some modifications may be made to the questionnaire.
