Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Selling your couch, adding friends or sending pieces of flair are all norms on Facebook. But now students use the social networking site to find a roommate.
The University of Kansas has joined Florida State University, the University of Central Florida and the University of Florida on the new RoomBug application on Facebook. RoomBug has also added several other universities to its application.
Peter Zdebski, marketing associate at RoomBug, said the application was different from the normal process of applying for a residence hall and being paired with an unknown roommate. He said the difference was that it was a matching utility. Zdebski said students could choose lifestyle preferences for their ideal roommate, including neatness, whether they were more academically or socially focused and what time they like to go to bed.
Scott Smith, Lawrence sophomore said he would add the application to his Facebook page.
“It sounds, in theory, like it would work great,” Smith said. “There are also others out there like MySpace that could utilize this.”
Going potluck can be a risk for students. RoomBug is an alternative to the stress that it can bring.
“If you go with something like RoomBug you can provide your schedule so that you and your matches can get a hold of each other and work out a time to meet and see if you are compatible,” Smith said.
Jennifer Wamelink, associate director for residence life, said most residence hall roommate matches were successful. She said currently there were about 3,600 students living in the residence halls. She said a majority chose to mutually request their roommates on their contracts. Students can mutually request to live together when they sign housing contracts, but there is no guarantee that they will room together.
RoomBug was started in 2007 by Michael Hacker, who is currently the CEO. Zdebski said Hacker thought that because students were going to Facebook to look up their assigned roommate, they should bring them there directly to choose their roommate.
— — Edited by Grant Treaster
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