On April 8, 2024, Union students began sending a link for an online survey called the Marriage Pact in group chats and on social media. The Marriage Pact is an annual nationwide matchmaking activity where students fill out a survey and are matched with someone with compatible interests on campus. The intent is for participants to agree that their match will be their “safety” spouse if they do not get married to other people.
The form contained questions that participants could answer on a sliding scale such as “I generally like to take control during sex,” “I believe in star signs,” “My partner can be ‘just friends’ with an ex,” and more. Several questions asked participants about their non-negotiables in a relationship, such as stances on abortion, politics, and their partner’s race(s).
A total of 734 students (out of about 2,050 enrolled students) filled out the survey from April 8 to April 15, 2024. In addition, once students filled out the survey, they could anonymously send it to others over email. On April 15, students were able to see who they matched with and given their contact information. Approximately 100 students got a friendship match instead of a romantic one because there were more female-identifying or other-identifying students in the pool than there were matches.
Though the pact could, theoretically, have serious implications, many students saw it as a humorous form. “I think it’s a really funny idea. I think, I mean, I don’t know how many people are actually taking it seriously.” Scarlet Gibby ‘27 said. “I thought a lot of the questions were really silly. I mean, I enjoyed it.”
“It got big on Yik Yak, so that’s where I saw it from, and then once I saw that, I clicked on the link,” Katherine Perez ‘26 said. “I know that some people didn’t get matched, it was just supposed to be for fun.”
Not every student used the marriage pact to find true love either. “I have a boyfriend, so I wasn’t looking for a partner. I was just curious what it would tell me,” Carlu Thompson ‘27 remarked. “And then it gave me a girl, because there were too many girls, which is for the best, because as I said, I have a boyfriend. But I haven’t talked to her because I am too afraid and I’m not really in the mood. But overall it was a fun little giggle to have while it lasted.”
Other students felt similarly. “I personally did not do the marriage pact, but from my friends that did do it, the results were funny because it was just random matches.” Mariah Jackson ‘27 said. “Nothing really came out of it, but it was just something fun to look at.”
On other college campuses, students had similar experiences with the pact. Spring Chenjp of Rice University remarked that “I wasn’t really in it to get a match. I was in it to take the survey because people said it was fun.” according to the Rice Newspaper The Rice Thresher.
Some students, at least on other campuses, did go on dates with their marriage pact matches. “We agreed to meet up for coffee this past Sunday, we got the aforementioned coffee, and then we parted ways.” Suraj Singareddy of Yale University wrote in The Yale Daily News. “He was nice, the conversation was decent, but that was about it. In the end, the fun of Marriage Pact was all in the expectation — that someone would fall out of the sky, or out of an email, whom I’d instantly have a connection with.”
On other college campuses, the pact has returned each semester for new students to fill out. It is unclear whether it will return to Union in the fall 2024 trimester or not. Until then, the 734 students who filled out the pact can get to know their matches and gain new friendships or relationships.
