Directory to help students click with Village life

Students and other Westwood residents looking to plan an evening
in the Village will soon be able to do so through one place ““
a new Web site that will be launched this quarter by UCLA Local
Government and Community Relations.

Created by a UCLA student, www.gowestwood.ucla.edu, will provide
a directory of Westwood businesses with contact information and
hours of operation. It will also include information about parking
and vendors who offer student discounts, directions and a link to
purchase movie tickets.

Taylor Hanan, a second-year cognitive science student, initiated
the project last spring to improve the relationship between
Westwood Village and UCLA.

“I had been told about Westwood Village and how great it
was and how much it has to offer, and I wanted to get the message
out to students so we could utilize the college town,” Hanan
said. “A Web site gets the message out quickly and
easily in the most cost-effective way.”

After talking to professors, students and the Center for Student
Programming about the best way to implement the project, Hanan was
directed to Local Government and Community Relations, which took on
the project last summer.

Hanan met with Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss and
presented the project to several neighborhood homeowner’s
associations in January to foster community involvement.

The Web site, which is organized into categories including food,
health and entertainment/art, will provide a listing of vendors
that allow UCLA students and staff to pay by BruinCard. It will
also feature weekly a business that offers a student discount, said
Patrick Chung, a second-year psychology student who is working on
the project.

Project coordinators hope to strengthen the relationship between
students and merchants.

“A good relationship like that adds to the university and
makes Westwood more of a college town,” said Diana
Brueggemann, executive director of Local Government and Community
Relations.

Business owners feel the site will be a good resource for new
students.

“I think it’s great,” said David Elvin,
district manager of D’Amore’s Pizza Connection, a
Village restaurant. “Students can go and see everything
that’s available rather than having to walk the streets. They
know what direction to go, who delivers, and who
doesn’t. The people that have been here already know
that, but for new students, it’s great.”

Students also think the Web site will be useful in a variety of
ways.

“I think everyone will utilize it for different
reasons,” said Amanda Villalobos, a fourth-year microbiology
student.

First-year students might use the site to see what is in the
Village while third- and fourth-years will use it to find phone
numbers of places to order food to go, she said.

The Web site may eventually expand to include more features.

“This is the platform,” Brueggemann said. “We
will continue to build on it.”

With the constant turnover of businesses in Westwood, Chung and
Brueggemann both noted that one difficulty will be keeping the site
current.

Hanan is going abroad next year and Brueggemann hopes other
students will be interested in updating the project.

The final stage of the project is to market the site to students
and the community. Local Government and Community Relations is
working with UCLA Marketing to promote the site.

Technical problems, editing, copyright issues and the approval
process forced the project’s launch date back from winter
quarter to spring quarter.

Once the site is completed, Hanan hopes it will be useful to the
community.

“I’ve been a UCLA fan for so long and couldn’t
wait to come to Westwood,” Hanan said. “This is
something I can give back to (UCLA) for all (it has) given to
me.”