Alumni attend Reunions singles mixer

While University students today use Tinder and similar alternatives in their half-serious attempts to meet a future partner, Reunions features a decidedly low-tech version of this dating scene for alumni.

From 5-6:15 PM on Friday in the Frist Campus Center Multipurpose Room A, the Members of Classes 1970-90 and the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni were invited to partake in “Welcome To The Singles Jungle: Tiger Speed Dating Mixer.”

The speed dating event took a free-form flow, with a mid-sized group of about 20 alumni sharing conversation, cupcakes and drinks.

The events were sponsored by the Class of 1980 and the Alumni Association of Princeton University, along with the Classes of 1990, 1985, 1975, 1970.

According to Wendy Gerber ’80, who helped to organize the event, Mibs Southerland Mara and Katherine Stellato from the Alumni Office were instrumental in organizing the event and are modeling the speed dating format on other events they have organized.

Southerland Mara was unavailable for comment, and Stellato did not respond to requests for comment.

According to Gerber, the event has been going on for a number of reunions.

“I had gotten involved representing my class this year. I had some ideas for ways to make it a little more exciting and fun. Hopefully it will be successful,” Gerber said.

Gerber said that Southerland Mara helped her come up with the idea to add speed dating to the Singles Mixer. Other new additions to the Singles events at Reunions this year are moving the events down campus, to be more central and close to reunion tents, and also limiting the age range of alumni involved in the event.

According to Gerber, traditionally, the Singles Mixer has been held at Chancellor Green, which was interesting for alumni who attended Princeton when Chancellor Green was the pub, but didn’t seem to get a lot of traffic for present day Reunions since the University has expanded so much.

“I thought it might be better to limit the classes so that it would be a tighter age range versus the entire campus community of singles,” Gerber said.

Gerber said she hoped that these changes would generate more excitement and traffic.

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“Hopefully people have fun, get the opportunity to forge new friendships and possibly new relationships,” Gerber said. “When you’ve got a relationship based on Princeton, there’s really a common ground to begin with.”

Van Walluch ’80, author of “A Kosher Dating Odyssey: One Former Texas Baptist's Quest for a Naughty & Nice Jewish Girl,” said he heard about the event through it being listed with all of the other Reunions events but that he probably won’t be attending the event, since he is currently dating.

When asked if he thinks a singles mixer at reunions is a good idea, Wallach said yes.

“People are in a talkative mood," Wallach said. "There’s definitely a connection among people so you’re not going in to this kind of a speed dating event just as an unknown. You’ve all gone to Princeton with class connections. You may know people in common, you may not, but any kind of connection you can take into an event are useful for overcoming any kind of hesitancy or concern."

Wallach noted he has speed dated in the past. He explained that the idea for his book about his dating began from a PAW essay in January 2004, He also wrote an essay for the 'Prince' about dating activities called, “Fear and loathing on the long island singles scene,” in September 1979.

Jill Baron ’80, who has experience running the singles mixer in the past, said that she thinks the event is a great idea. She said she would try to attend the event if possible; she has gone the past two times she’s been at Princeton.

“You meet like-minded people so it’s definitely a good thing,” Baron said.

Leslie Rowley, a spouse of a member of the Class of 1995 and Associate Director of Alumni Education, explained that singles mingle events have been going on for a number of years, but that speed dating was new this year. They were prepared to adjust the format in accordance with alumni response, which turned into a more free-flow format, with alumni mixing and mingles without a rigid format.

“Some alums came to us a number of years ago to ask us to set up a time for alumni that spanned across classes,” Rowley said. “Being able to have a social space and a time for people to make connections, whether they’re potentially romantic or otherwise, seemed to be important to them.”

Nina Lytton '78, who attended the mixer, said that, empirically, most marriages happen between people that attend the same school, Princeton included, is because being within one standard of deviation of the IQ of your partner is very important to the health of a relationship.

“Princeton really is a family, and so many of your friends are in the family that it makes sense to look for romance in the family as well. It just makes sense from a life point of view,” Nina Lytton ’78, who attended the mixer, said. “[Princeton relationships] makes sense statistically as well as logistically,” Lytton noted.

The Office of the Alumni Association hasn’t been able to track how many relationships have come from the mixers, though there is a reasonable probability of success, Rowley said.