Dating on campus? Why or why not?

Dating in general can prove to be a challenge for many people.

It seems as if some sort of spring fever hits the campus when Valentine’s Day looms and the weather begins to change. “Ring by spring” is heard throughout female dorm hallways as Facebook relationship statuses change on what appears to be a daily basis.

Whether your significant other is right here at UMHB or you’re in a long-distance relationship, the Valentine season can swing back and forth from being an exciting or a miserable time of year.

One of the most appealing aspects of the university to male students is often the favorable female-to-male ratio. The familiar 3-1 ratio has now evened out a little more and is currently 2-to-1. Although statistics have changed, men still have the high hand.

With these numbers, you’d think every man on campus would be dating, and respectable women would resort to fist-fighting to decide who dates and who stays single.

Ask around. This isn’t the case at all.

Many single men on campus will tell you that most women here aren’t available and assume that almost all of them are involved in long-distance relationships. 

Many women say too many of men are dating off-campus women, and there are too many females on campus with not enough males to supplement a huge number of female students.  

Jenica Frye, a junior nursing major, has been in a long-distance relationship for almost two years. 

“Believe me, it would be much easier to date here at UMHB, but I really don’t have much control over that,” she said.
Frye has to drive almost four hours to see her boyfriend, but she admits their current situation might be best for both of them.

“My boyfriend and I agree that if we ever went to the same school, we’d definitely have lower grade point averages,” she said. “We’d want to spend time together, and we’d never get anything done.”

Brandon Ray, a sophomore biology major, has a similar view.

“It might be easier to date off-campus,” he said. “It’s easier to focus on school, and that way you can have a social life beyond just a relationship.”

School work, as well as other school stressors, can get in the way of any relationship and can sometimes create boundaries to the social networks available to help in finding that special someone.

Tabitha Vandegriff is a junior nursing major who is required by her degree to spend most of her time studying.  Without the free time to go out and meet an abundance of new people, she understands the difficulty of dating, whether long-distance or otherwise.

“Since I’m a nursing major, I don’t have a lot of time to talk to people besides the other nursing majors,” she said. “If you have classes with all the same people, most of them being women, it’s hard to meet guys to be interested in dating. There’s just not a lot of opportunity or time.”

Once some people find the time for a relationship, it can sometimes take over their social life and free time. 
“A lot of people here start dating someone, and that’s all they spend their time on,” Ray said. “I think that can ruin some of the college experience.”

What often overcomes the difficulty of dating is the challenge of breaking up. At a small school like UMHB, dating and parting ways can become a sticky situation as groups of friends and dating partners can often overlap schedules. 

“Breaking up with someone here is like breaking up with someone in high school,” Frye said. “You just keep running into them because the school is so small.”

Ray also thinks the situation could become complicated.

“I would think dating and then breaking up here would be pretty awkward,” he said.

The dilemma will never be solved. Men and women will be inherently different forever, and relationships will continue to be an unexplainable enigma.

The only way to avoid the stress and mess that sometimes comes with relationships is to steer clear of the idea in general.

“I don’t have to have a girlfriend right now,” Ray said. “I’ve got a lot of life left.”