Taylor University and Indiana Wesleyan University students sought love across school lines this Valentine's Day in a game-show style event, “Love on the Line.”
It was IWU’s second year putting on a Valentine’s dating show-style event. For the occasion, they invited TU students to participate, bridging connections between students at the schools, whether that be romantically or platonically.
The crowd of students sporting pink and red cheered for their classmates and friends who encouraged them to go out for the show.
For some contestants, the process began weeks in advance as they applied online, not expecting anything to come of it, and then—surprise! They got an email saying they had been picked. For others, participation came from the nominations and some light-hearted peer pressure the night of.
Six or seven contestants sat on opposite sides of a curtain that shielded the bachelor or bachelorette. In each of the four rounds, a different student would pick a date for that round.
IWU Associate Professor Steve Wood of the division of theatre and music acted as the emcee of the night, under an alias where he joked with pop-culture fluency.
Wood read the questions to the contestants who would give their best response aloud. Each contestant had three “hearts” or “lives.” Hearing the answers, the bachelor or bachelorette would pick their favorite, writing either that answer or the contestant’s identifying number on a whiteboard. The chosen answer would then be safe, and any without that answer would lose a “heart” or a “life.”
When all but one contestant was eliminated, the remaining person and the date making the calls met onstage.
The remaining pairs will all go on a group date paid for by IWU’s Student Activities Council who had put on the event.
Sophomore Cam Baker, TU student and contestant in the final round of “Love on the Line,” enjoyed listening to his friend and co-competitor sophomore Wyatt Wash try pick-up lines. Baker thinks the event could be even more exciting in the future by diving deeper-than surface-level questions and embracing the more “lovey-dovey” ones, as that is what makes it funnier and cringy.
“It’s a good idea,” Baker said. “IWU and Taylor come together and be a community. It's fun to see that.”
Though she was nervous beforehand about coming up with questions for the contestants, TU freshman Grace Masters felt more comfortable on stage because she did not have to do the talking.
Masters was the bachelorette of the third round and though she had fun displaying big emotions on stage for a reaction, she shared how the event affected her beyond a single evening of fun.
“It was super fun,” Masters said, “I feel like I've been able to meet a lot of new people because of it. I've just been walking around and friends of friends will (say), ‘Wait, You were on “Love on the Line.” How was it?’ It's super fun to get to know people that way. And since I didn't get to talk a lot on the stage, I feel like people get to know me a lot better through that conversation, the story, and I just feel like I know a lot more people at Taylor now.”
A contestant in the first round, TU sophomore Sage Gable had applied early on; however, she didn’t tell her friends about her application until she was later emailed her invite for the show. Learning that a friend would also be doing it reassured Gable and convinced her to participate as well.
Gable was grateful for the experience as it pushed her and made her want to act similarly in the future.
“I think my biggest takeaway for me personally was (that) I need to stop saying no to everything and start saying yes to things, because I say no to everything, so the fact that I said yes to something I asked is crazy,” Gable said, “(I learned) I do have fun doing weird things. That's what I took away. I didn't leave with a date, but I did leave with the realization of ‘I need to say yes to more things.’”
Some TU and IWU students expressed interest in Taylor hosting a dating event next year further building up the connections between the schools and leaving rivalries on the field.
