When Cameron first came into the Economics Department office fall semester, Katie denied his application to be a teaching assistant for an economics class. The day he came in to find out why he hadn't been hired, he and Katie met face to face.
After sorting out the miscommunication, Cameron asked Katie out. They went out a few days later and now they are getting married in August.
Katie Taylor is a sophomore from Yorba Linda, Calif. majoring in economics; Cameron Jones is a junior from Concord, Calif. also majoring in economics.
"The majority of students in my major are guys," Taylor said. "Economics people don't usually get together. Your life can be absorbed with economics; you don't want to date someone whose life is absorbed in economics, too."
Every major on campus is different. Some have balanced numbers of male and female students compared to the College of Nursing which is 93 percent female and the College of Engineering which is 89 percent male, according to University Communications.
As a result of this inequality, some majors have tried to help their students meet other students by planning activities with majors dominated by the opposite gender.
The students in the College of Engineering called the Student Nurse's Association a few years ago to plan a combined activity. The future engineers wanted the future nurses to go ice skating.
After the success of that activity, the Student Nurse's Association went on to invite the School of Accountancy, which is predominately male, to do a food drive with them, which they have done for the last two years.
"We don't want to set our students up," said Trisha Harris, president of the Student Nurse's Association. "It's a good way for nursing students to meet people from other colleges other than their single ward."
Other majors on campus dominated by females or males don't have activities. Elementary education is 97 percent female, yet there are no annual activities between the future educators and a predominately male major.
"It might be fun to have activities with another college not just for the dating aspect, but also to broaden your horizons," said Melissa Speigle, a senior from Shelton, Wash. majoring in elementary education. "It's easy to just get used to thinking about one thing all the time and it would be nice to use other parts of your brain."
Some people in these majors aren't worried about meeting people because there are other places to meet people than in class.
Brian Rowe, a senior from Modesto, Calif. in the School of Accountancy, which is 81 percent male, met his wife when they were in the same singles ward, according to University Communications
"Sometimes it's hard to get to know people in your classes because you only ever see them in class," Rowe said. "That doesn't stop people from wanting to date people in their classes; it's just more convenient to date people from your ward because you see them at other activities."
Copyright Brigham Young University 2 Apr 2008
