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Last updated on Friday, October 2, 2015
(BLOOMINGTON) - Incoming freshmen in the 2016 class at Indiana University will have a new digital way to connect with potential roommates.
The university is piloting Uversity's Roommate Finder 2.0, a digital application that joins students within a private network. The application will be added to the university's existing private network for new students, called Schools App, which launched in 2013 for the 2014 incoming class and uses Facebook profiles for authentication.
IU Information Technology Services business analyst Jay Steele says no university-sponsored private network existed before Schools App.
Last month the app produced more than 14,000 connections between IU students, said Steele.
The primary objective is to give the admitted students an opportunity to make those connections before they get on campus.
After seeing the success of Schools App, officials decided to tack on the Roommate Finder feature, which will officially launch in the next week or two, according to Office of Enrollment Management marketing director Jacqueline Fernette.
IU recently began admitting students to the 2016 class, so the university waited to launch Roommate Finder until about 1,000 students joined Schools App.
In its pilot stage, the feature will only be available to freshmen in the 2016 class. Each user will be able to create a listing with information about schedules and hobbies, and qualities desired in roommates. Students will then be able to browse listings and send each other private messages.
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