On Jan. 16, the Mississippi State University Student Association announced a partnership with the marketplace app, “Rumie,” to bring a student-exclusive marketplace to campus.
Rumie is a startup company and app created by two University of Mississippi students that aims to provide a safe space for students to buy and sell items. The app also allows users to chat publicly and view upcoming campus events. It is the largest college-exclusive marketplace app in the United States.
MSU is the second university, after UM, to establish an official partnership with Rumie. Hunter Yelverton, the director of policy for the Student Association, said that the partnership has been in development since early last semester. Yelverton said that Rumie is a better alternative to other apps students use to trade items because it requires users to have a university-affiliated email address.
“The whole idea is we want students off of Facebook Marketplace, Snapchat, Groupme. I mean, these are fantastic platforms, but they’re not student-only,” Yelverton, a senior industrial engineering and business administration major, said.
Although the app is available to all college students nationwide, registering with an official MSU email allows students to access specific features, such as chatrooms, a maroon and white theme and campus announcements that other users cannot see. Additionally, users can see from which campus items are listed and filter out items from other campuses.
Tanner McCraney, the founder of Rumie and head of revenue and growth, said he had the idea for the app during his freshman year of college after a bad experience on Facebook Marketplace.
“You’re only meeting up with students on campus,” McCraney said, “and it’s only college-related items like tickets, textbooks, dorm furniture, apartment furniture, Mississippi State clothing, electronics that are perfect for dorm rooms and stuff like that.”
The Student Association has also collaborated with the MSU Police Department to create a place in the department’s lobby where students can meet to pick up the items they buy on Rumie. Additionally, Yelverton said they are working with the Department of Housing and Residence Life to designate the residence halls as safe pickup locations.
“I think that there’s like 16 or 17 dorms on campus, so that jumps us up to, like, 18 safe exchange spots,” Yelverton said, “which I think is more than enough for a campus this size.”
Rumie also features a report function. If students have a poor experience with another user or suspect app misuse, they can report that through the app. This is compared to other apps, where students are often scammed out of buying things, such as sports tickets, with no efficient way to report the person who scammed them. Yelverton said that the app is designed to allow users to see other users’ official MSU emails so that they can look each other up in the school directory to ensure maximum transparency.
“In their several years of [Rumie] existing, there’s been maybe one instance of somebody trying to scam someone,” Yelverton said. “The payment is pretty seamless. Like I said, nothing is anonymous.”
The campus chat feature is also highly moderated. Over 1,000 filters prevent users from discussing anything inappropriate or harmful. The chat has several categories, such as subleasing and apartments, jobs and internships, ticket sales and general chat. Yelverton said that this is intended to streamline students’ searches for specific items.
“Let’s say you’re looking for a basketball ticket for your friend. You can shoot this message out, ‘Hey, looking for men’s basketball ticket for Wednesday game versus Alabama,'” Yelverton said. “Shoot that out on the campus chat, and maybe somebody will respond or DM you.”
Caki Field, the director of human resources and head of recruiting and special programs at Rumie, said another critical aspect of Rumie’s campus chat feature is social connection.
“It can be hard to be connected if you’re not in a sorority or fraternity or involved in a club,” Field said. “We want the chat to be a way to connect with other students just campus-wide.”
Before the partnership, an estimated 3,000 MSU students were using the app. Since the official collaboration with the Student Association launched on Jan. 16, they have gained 400-500 users. McCraney said their goal is to double the current usage by the end of the year.
“We made it really easy for you to sign up,” McCraney said. “This platform is just to help the students of Mississippi State. Give it a try, and we’re confident that you’ll love it.”
Field, a University of Mississippi alumna, said it has been wonderful to connect with MSU and the Student Association, adding that she cannot wait to see how students respond to the app.
“I wrote in my LinkedIn post when we debuted everything, ‘As an Ole Miss grad, I never thought I’d say it, but Hail State!'” Field said. “We’re super excited to get this going and provide it for your students.”
