Decades ago, universities were places for only the academically outstanding and those who seek a life committed to research. Nowadays, most universities offer both a wide range of academic and non-academic services like mental health consultants, tax consultants, dental clinics and academic advisors. Despite this move towards treating students more holistically, many universities overlook a significant part many students’ lives: dating, with all the struggles and turmoil it causes. University of Toronto Cupid’s Arrow (UTCA) club is created to meet this need. The club is designed to bring people with different experiences and backgrounds together for the purpose of meaningful social interactions, safe group activities, and most importantly, responsible dating. Our “Theory of Change” An average North American goes into a happy marriage with the 7th person they date; this usually means they will experience 6 heartbreaking fall outs before they find the right person. How come? We attribute the causes to lack of experience, guidance, and opportunity. If there was a platform for young adults to safely meet others with the same romantic intentions, but still avoid the awkwardness of two strangers trying to woo each other, wouldn’t dating be much easier, and broken hearts be less frequent? UTCA is such a platform. How We Operate It gathers love-seekers together for fun group events such as evening socials, laser tag and movie nights, while still providing opportunities for alone time if a couple is interested. Members feel more assured since there are more friends around if they need support, and UTCA executives can act as reliable chaperones. The events UTCA hosts are not just places for love-seekers to couple up, they’re also great opportunities to find like-minded friends, and to seek the advices of more experienced members. At first, the only requirement for being a member was showing up to events. With this low threshold we quickly expanded to over 100 members. However, it became obvious that due to the intimate nature of the club members were sensitive to the words and actions of other members and more needed to expected of each member’s conduct. In particular, we received reports of unwelcome jokes by certain members. Alarmed, we quickly moved to establish ethical guidelines for all member communications in the group. Conversations in the large group is closely monitored by executives and people exhibiting inappropriate behaviour are warned once and then immediately removed upon second offense. Now that UTCA is better prepared and established, it is certain that the council can provide even better service and events to all of its members.
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