Craigslist personals just got some competition — from eduHookups.

A pre-med undergraduate student at the University of Chicago launched the website for the purpose of casual sex, according to the website. A message on the site appears in the center of the page: ‘Chastity is curable if detected early on,’ but the message changes each time users refresh the page.  

What originally started as brushing up on computer coding skills developed into a social experiment as the founder sought to disprove the common misconception that UChicago is a place ‘where fun goes to die.’ The founder wishes to remain anonymous and has not revealed himself to any media sources.

‘What started as a small project in my free time extended after we saw how popular it came to be,’ the founder said in a phone interview with The Daily Orange. ‘It then became a real service with extended services.’

During the social-experiment phase of the website, the founder centered the site’s motto as ‘where fun comes to thrive.’ With so many UChicago students being drawn to the website, the founder said he thinks the school is ready to leave behind the old stereotype of being uptight. 

The site was originally available to only UChicago students, but after the first wave of success, it was expanded to Northwestern University and Columbia College Chicago, and the name was changed from ‘U-Chicago Hookups’ to ‘eduHookups.’ The site opened registration to Brown University students this week, the founder said. 

By taking cues from guerilla marketing tactics and hand making posters that were put up all around campus to catch students’ attention, the local media caught onto the ‘no strings attached sexual experience’ website, the founder said. 

In the two weeks since eduHookups received coverage from the Huffington Post, RedEye and Daily Mail UK, the number of registered members has soared. The founder said members jumped from 200 to 800 members, and 1,800 private messages have been sent. 

The founder said, as a student on campus, he has heard ‘a very positive response to downright outrage from the more conservative students on campus.’

Criticism of eduHookups even surfaced on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, when Leno joked that all of college is a place for casual sex, and college students don’t need a website for it.

The website has five full-time staff members, all of whom are undergraduate students, and a couple more that help out as needed, he said. 

‘Ultimately, we want to be everywhere if we find a way to market our services on every campus,’ said the website’s founder. 

Unlike Craigslist personals, registration is restricted to students with an email address from one of the participating schools, the founder said. Instead of email, a personal messaging system via the website allows for more private interactions, the founder said.

The site values the privacy of users and promotes safe sexual practice. Various links direct students to health centers on campus and free distribution of condoms, according to the website.

But the founder said eduHookups lets students get a wider selection in choosing their casual hookup of the night, which students might not get at a party. 

‘It’s a bit more tailored search for the type of hookup you want. You post that these are my demands and if you meet them, it’s a match,’ he said. ‘Basically, it’s a pretty good approach to the issue at hand.’

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Published on March 29, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Tedi: [email protected]