Okay, collegiettes, I have a question: Would you be completely thrown off if a Quinnipiac guy asked you on a date to get to know you better? According to some Quinnipiac ladies, the answer was yes.
Says sophomore Britni Spring, “100% yes. Like, if they initially said ‘hey let me take you to dinner’ instead of ‘hey lets meet up at Toad’s on Saturday’ or something; yes, I would be very surprised.”
And no, I don’t mean Toad’s or a house party. I mean a nice, sit down, substance free dinner. Think about it: when is the last time a college guy went through the process of courting you: asking you on a date to dinner/movie/coffee, where you would sit down sober, face to face, to get to know each other better. The norms are different in college.
Says sophomore Brynn Kelly, “Yes, I would be surprised if a Quinnipiac guy asked me out because it’s not normally what a guy would do now a days to get to know a girl. Though it has happened to me before, I am still surprised every time because of how rare it is and since I know the nature of guys today.”
So have we lowered our standards to these “norms?” Coming from experience, I would say yes. In fact, most dating in college comes from being friends first or having a “hookup” progress into something serious.
At Quinnipiac, the gender ratio is 60% women, 40% men. This means that we are the majority – if we raise the our standards for dating then the male population may just have to give in…and actually take us to dinner.
When asked if she would be surprised if asked on a traditional date, Junior Sarah Castillo said, “I wouldn’t be surprised they asked if I wanted to go to a party or a bar but that’s definitely not my idea of a date,” who also agreed she would be caught off guard if asked on an off-campus date.
In the male mind, going to a party or Toads may suffice for a date – but how is it considered a date when it consists of creepy old men lurking in the shadows and little to no talking? What goes through a guys’ mind if he does ask her to Toads (or any bar) or even a party?
Says junior Andrew Nocera, “Either she’s in the friend zone or you want to just hook up with her”. Simple enough, right? Not really.
We may think this is what guys actually consider courting, but looks like we could be wrong. Sophomore Tommy Thevenet said that he has taken a QU girl out on a date before, but “she wanted to go to Chipotle in Hamden and then we watched some movies in my dorm afterwards”. So, maybe it isn’t totally the guys’ faults!
So if guys recognize that Toad’s and house parties aren’t dates, why are we still caught off guard if a guy so much as asks us to go somewhere other than those places for the reason of trying to court us traditionally? Is dating on campus completely dead?
Says freshman Keith Singman, “I don’t know if dating is virtually dead. But I would assume that transportation is an issue. If QU was in a city like Boston for example, there are so many options on where to go and how to get there. Everything is in walking distance.”
Singman has a point – our less than stellar shuttle system isn’t exactly up to par so freshman and those without cars are limited to mooching off of friends, car services, and that shuttle service that runs into Hamden every 50 minutes. Not exactly romantic. Nocera, however, had a different explanation.
Nocera said he believes the dating scene is indeed dead, “because girls would rather go to a bar than get dressed up and go out.”
So do we give off that we would rather get to know a guy over drinks at the bar than over a nice dinner at Elis? Or do we settle for what we think we deserve? Let’s get back to the basics, collegiettes – accept nothing less than chivalrous and romantic – if we all raise our standards, maybe the male population WILL shape up.