Finding ways to access Westwood
By Michelle Ouaknine
May 16, 2006 9:00 p.m.
Though the Go Westwood Web site was deactivated in February,
university officials and student leaders are finding other ways to
promote a closer relationship between students and Westwood
Village.
Go Westwood was a Web site that linked students to Westwood
Village by providing a list of businesses in the area, including
merchants who would accept BruinCard as a form of payment or offer
a student discount.
Less than two years after its inception, the Go Westwood Web
site has been deactivated due to a lack of visits to the site.
UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton said the launch of comparable Web
sites, such as westwoodvillageonline.com, which is not affiliated
with UCLA, contributed to the site’s closure.
“It was initially well-received, but ultimately it
didn’t receive the type of traffic necessary to keep it
up,” Hampton said.
Since it costs money to upgrade and maintain a Web site, the
local Government and Community Relations office determined that it
would be more cost-effective to find alternative uses for those
resources, Hampton said.
Hampton said the office is exploring the possibility of
providing coupons for some Westwood merchants that would encourage
patronage in the Village.
“We believe that it is in the Village’s interest to
work with UCLA because there is a large pool of potential
patrons,” Hampton said.
The funds used for the Web site maintenance will now go toward
financing the office’s coupon project.
Taylor Hanan, a fourth-year cognitive science student, came up
with the idea for the Go Westwood Web site in 2004.
He said when he was a freshman, he intended to advertise for
Westwood merchants in the dorms, as businesses are not allowed to
advertise in those areas.
It was then that he came up with the idea for a Web site
promoting the different businesses and proposed the idea to Diana
Brueggemann in the Local Government and Community Relations
office.
In June 2004, their office launched the Go Westwood Web site,
Hampton said.
“(The site) worked really well, but we didn’t
promote it enough,” Hanan said. “The only people who
knew about it were my immediate friends.”
He said the Web site had many benefits, including providing
students with ideas of things to do in Westwood on weekends.
Hanan said he believes students will have fonder memories of
walking down to Westwood with a group of friends than they will of
driving to other local spots, such as Santa Monica. He said the
best thing to do at this point is to have a link on MyUCLA that
would directly link to a site such as westwoodvillageonline.com, so
students could easily access information about the Village.
“I think that if students knew more about what’s
there, they would use it more,” Hanan said.
The undergraduate student government has recently implemented
three different projects to help promote a stronger relationship
between students and Westwood Village, said USAC Facilities
Commissioner Joe Vardner.
The first project is called the Golden Paw Award, which was
first given out last month to seven local merchants to recognize
student-friendly businesses in Westwood.
Another project that was launched just three months ago is
called the Westwood Civic Group, which is a lobbying group
comprised of students, homeowners and a few administrative
advisers. The group is designed to address issues such as
recycling, neighborhood watch and streetlight repairs.
Currently the group is working on finding solutions to a
shortage of parking in Westwood.
The third project is called the Westwood Consulting Group. The
group is comprised of undergraduate business economics students who
are interested in pursuing a career in consulting after graduation.
The group is headed by a board member from the Undergraduate
Business Society and a graduate student from the Anderson School of
Management.
The group helps local merchants who have expressed interest in
improving their businesses by developing plans to make them more
student-friendly, while also improving sales.
Vardner said student input is necessary for any effective
changes aimed at making Westwood more student-friendly.
