All is fair in love and war, but what about in the highly calculated and statistical nature of Marriage Pact?
Marriage Pact arrived suddenly on our campus—or rather, in our emails—on the morning of Monday, March 3, nearly nine months ago today. The email described itself as “a large-scale matching event that provides students with their optimal marital back-up plans via algorithm.” The activity sparked conversation from Russell St. field all the way to 10 Frye. It seemed like everyone’s top objective was to make a connection.
Marriage Pact suddenly became a new player in the seemingly dry, trivial and oftentimes disappointing, love scene on campus. Forget commons crushes and awkward interactions in Burke basement, Marriage Pact was confident that its mathematical calculations would give us a new way to meet our supposed Bates match—as everyone knows the myth that 60% of Bates alums marry fellow alums (which was debunked to actually be 12.5% in 2015).
With around 1,210 participants, one would think there’d be some success, right? But after speaking with many Marriage Pact participants, there seemed to be limited success all around.
At first, it was very intriguing for everyone. The anticipation sparked late-night Ladd first-floor conversations, and fueled speculation at the PGill atrium tables, especially after we received the tease of our matches’ initials. Sarah Hughes ‘27 said, “It was fun to think that my personality could match with someone that I’ve never met before.” Platonic or romantic, “it was a fun way to find out who my personality would be a ‘match’ with.” Everyone was excited to see who they were most compatible with—an unnamed and unknown match who could turn your entire love life on its head.
Things took a turn on March 10 around 8 p.m., when the matches were released. When asked if they enjoyed the activity, some students expressed that it was fun up until the results came out. It reminded us that maybe this school was just a little bit too small. Multiple participants told me that they were paired with a friend of theirs, and nothing really came of it. Or even better, Hughes said, “my match was on a team that my team is very close with. It was kind of an odd match so word got around pretty fast and I hate to admit that I was a little embarrassed.”
But say you did act on the connection. You followed them on Instagram, they added you on Snapchat, then what? Well, maybe there was a reason you’d never crossed paths with certain people at Bates.
Let’s be clear—the intention was never to run off to Gomes Chapel and make it official, but rather, to spruce things up, as Lauren Wong ‘26 said, “I just honestly wanted to see if this could go somewhere with someone, because I am just so single.”
Not only did single students participate in the game, students in relationships played too. Reflecting on the experience, Hughes wrote to The Student, “my girlfriend and I look back at it and laugh because it was nothing serious but we feel we wouldn’t do it again especially since we don’t want to con someone out of a real match for a second time.” And justice for the people whose matches were in relationships—you were robbed.
Again, the issue of the size of Bates presents itself with a small pool of contenders to choose from, thus presenting a problem of students who partake in this activity without ever intending to interact with their match, at least, not in any romantic way.
It was fun watching electronic Cupid in action, observing love stories unfold, and noticing the web of connections creating links between social circles all over Bates. Maybe a character from your math class got paired with someone in your a cappella group, and the joy that sparked from making those connections was intoxicating. This is the essence of the small liberal arts experience. So many students expressed that the entire experience produced chat and gossip that fueled laughs for the following weeks.
Bates is a fun, and often awkward environment romantically, and we are all just trying to figure it out. Marriage Pact, though an entity foreign to Bates, was able to capture the spirit of the college itself. A very real part of that small school feel rests in those awkward interactions at the water station, or one-time flirtations in the bathroom line at Cage and running back to your friends to dissect every little detail of the interaction.
We only get four years in this special place, four years to make connections, get rejected and fall in love, all from the safety of our dear Bates bubble. So maybe we didn’t meet our next boyfriend, but does that mean that the activity wasn’t successful?
In the end, it’s not about crunching numbers—save that for Tinder, Hinge and all the other swiping apps eagerly awaiting you in the real world. While it may not have been the meet-cute with your soulmate that you were secretly hoping for, who knows? Maybe your Marriage Pact will be successful somewhere down the line. Of course, we are all here and young and eager, highly anticipating our next match. So stay strong, Batesies. Maybe your next relationship/situationship/DFMO is just around the corner… or in your overflowing inbox.
