While many are self-proclaimed introverts, many Brandeis students strive for connection. Dining halls, once buzzing with conversation, are now a place where many can be seen with their noses in their phones, desperately avoiding the horrors of awkward small talk. However, business-minded Brandeisians have begun to see technology as a way to connect students and ignite conversations.

Starting in 2022, the online service “Marriage Pact” became available at Brandeis. According to a Nov. 2022 article in The Justice, “the service, first established at Stanford in 2017, pairs students whose values — ethical, political, and social — match up … Both ends of the match are notified, leaving it up to them to pursue any kind of connection.” Captivating over a third of the undergraduate student body, Brandeis Marriage Pact has continued on, with the latest round of matches announced on Feb. 25. 

The hubbub surrounding new connections on campus spanned all student social platforms, including the anonymous posting app, Sidechat. In the Brandeis University channel, participants consistently called out for their matches to be released, increasing in impatience as the day drew near. At the same time, students across campus wanted to find that connection, simply without the romantic intentions. 

In a March 23 correspondence with The Justice, one of the founders of Brandeis Strangers shared “One of us, a senior, realized how often they ended up eating alone and how hard it can be to make new friends later in college.” That realization, along with the middle of spring semester influx of underclassman students reaching out for career advice, led to what “felt like the perfect opportunity to create a space where people could connect over a meal.”

This realization led to the creation of Brandeis Strangers, a website with the tagline “connecting random Brandeis students for meals, because sometimes meeting strangers is exactly what you need.”

Four business students connected, discussed possibilities and ultimately posted their own idea anonymously on the Sidechat app, hoping to gain some student feedback. The first post stated “Who would want to be matched with a random person on campus to eat a meal with? I eat so many meals alone and feel like it would be nice to be able to meet someone new and share a meal! Thoughts?” This post has received 93 upvotes from Brandeis students as of press time. The founders then responded with a screenshot of the website stating “Spent my afternoon making this but … coming soon! #LunchPact?” The idea received an overwhelmingly positive response from all users on the app, with the second post receiving 86 more upvotes as of press time. One of the founders told The Justice that Sidechat was super important in the process, sharing “Sidechat has been amazing for getting the word out and the interest from these posts is a large reason we ended up pursuing this!”

The founding students, through a combination of knowledge from the Introduction to Computer Science course and a large amount of “self-studying,” “figured out how to build this … to make Brandeis a better place.” A member of the team shared “We have no real tech background, just a lot of self-learning, trial and error.” 

When Brandeis students visit the website, they are met with a “how it works” section that states “being on campus can be lonely. schedules rarely align, and it’s tough finding new friends beyond your classes or clubs.” Users are then prompted to sign up with their Brandeis emails and input their “availability and meal preferences.” The signup process prompts users to select their major, class level and as many interests from the following categories as they desire: “entertainment & media, activities, arts & culture, academic & intellectual, social & campus life, tech & gaming and lifestyle.” 

Following interest information, the form asks what are labeled as “personality questions,” ranging from people’s social level to Hogwarts houses. Then, participants are asked if they want to meet someone who is similar or different from themselves. Once all of these questions have been completed, students are taken to the time selection page, where they are given a wide range of options in terms of meal times. At this stage in development, meals are only available to be scheduled in the Sherman Dining Hall. 

After students complete the form, the information is utilized to “match [them] with someone new based on [their] compatible meal times and preferences.” As the students go to meet one another in the dining hall, they will each have a color on their phone to display in order to find each other.

The first week, there was no theme as students met for meals. On March 15, the Brandeis Strangers Instagram page announced their second pilot round, this time paired with a theme. The post’s caption read “you never know who you’ll meet. This week, sign up to get matched with another student for a meal. no pressure, no awkward small talk. just a chance to shake things up.” It continued on introducing a new idea, “plus, this round has a special housing theme: still looking for a roommate? need to fill a spot? or hoping to get pulled in? grab a meal and see if it’s a match before the housing selection day.” 

On March 21, the third pilot was announced, with the tagline “triple the fun. triple the connections. one meal. three new faces. endless convos.” According to one of the founders, “This week we’re trying out four-person lunches for those who might feel a bit shy joining solo.” This new format allows individuals to sign up with a friend, meet a different group, and sit together.

The Brandeis Strangers team shared “we’ve had over 70 participants in the first two weeks … Every single person who filled out our feedback survey said they’d do it again, which has been super encouraging.” Their Instagram shared a positive testimony from a student. On March 16 they stated “I was kinda skeptical at first, then ended up signing up with my friend group to try it out. It was a lovely experience, and [I] would definitely do it again!”

While the start of Brandeis Strangers has been met with overwhelmingly positive feedback, it has not come without its setbacks. One of the founders shared “In our first week after launch, we actually received a few attacks on the website, but we were able to fix everything really quickly with the help of students who weren’t even part of the founding team.” They elaborated by explaining, “It was honestly really heartwarming to see how much support we got from the Brandeis community.”

These attacks have resulted in one of the group’s long-term goals, they’re “looking for a few CS students who might want to join and help us turn this into a full app and keep it going next year.” The hope is that the addition of computer science students to the team will “help [them] build something more secure and scalable for the long run.” 

In addition to transitioning to an app format, they shared “Our goal is to grow this at Brandeis first, then expand to Boston schools and eventually other campuses. We also see potential for making this a peer mentorship platform based on major or career interests like med or law school, finance, tech, journalism, and more.” The founding team continues to work hard behind the scenes, as students build new connections in Sherman Dining Hall every meal, decreasing the number of phone screens and increasing the number of new friends.