While Oakland University’s Welcome Week festivities came to an end on Saturday, Jan. 9, there were still plenty of activities that carried on well into the night at the Oakland Center.

At 9:45 p.m. students were encouraged to gather in the Pioneer Food Court for Speed Dating: OU Style. When the time came for the event to begin, there were only about 10 people participating; most of them were men.

“It’s ridiculous that people didn’t take it seriously,” sophomore Christie Firestine said. “I wanted to give it a try because I’ve seen it in movies and it looked fun.”

The turnout for Speed Dating was different compared to other weekend events.

The psychics had waiting lists due to their popularity while The Gold Rooms flourished with students participating in the OC Mini Club.

About 400 people attended the hypnotist show the previous night and a lot of students enjoyed the comedian that performed during “Friday Night Live.”

The speed dating event was supposed to give guys and girls the opportunity to chat with one another for a given amount of time. Once a few minutes were up, partners would be changed.

Included in the activity was a list of ice breaker questions that included discussions about majors, hobbies, friends and much more.

Although the point of Speed Dating is to potentially find a date, many of the participants came simply to meet more people at OU.

“I came ’cause I thought it would be fun,” freshman Jim Van Nada said. “And I wanted to try something new. I came to make friends and have fun.”

Center for Student Activities Director Jean Ann Miller anticipated more girls turning out than guys, which was opposite of the actual turnout. Miller took suggestions from the 10 students who were there about how the activity could attract more people.

“I think it should be done during lunch one day,” sophomore Nathan Benoit said. “Whoever happened to be there would be like ‘Hey, why not?'”

Even though Speed Dating did not turn out how it was originally intended, students did get the opportunity to meet new people. Ironically, attendees talked about a lot of the topics that would have been on the ice breaker sheet.

Miller took all of these suggestions into consideration and has different ideas for ways to make a bigger turnout possible.