There is a wide disconnect among students and Westwood’s governing bodies.
While that gap is understandable – students are usually here for only a short time packed with academics and campus goings-on – it is nonetheless a missed opportunity.
The Westwood Neighborhood Council, the area’s official representative to the Los Angeles City Council, could benefit from the dynamism and sheer numbers that the UCLA student body offers. In turn, students could gain an advocate to City Hall through closer collaboration with the group.
Yet, because of a lack of interest on students’ part and a lack of collaborative enthusiasm on the part of the council, the connection remains untapped year after year. The incoming council should take steps to remedy this disconnect, while students should be open to its overtures.
For one, the council’s meetings are irregular. The meetings are scheduled for every month but are often canceled.
Locations for meetings are similarly impromptu. The council should set a meeting place in Westwood Village, where students and other stakeholders without transportation can easily attend.
But beyond these procedural issues, the council needs to understand that UCLA’s massive student population – a constituency of more than 40,000 members – is a significant and important part of its constituency.
As the neighborhood’s official representative to the city, the council has an obligation to work for the benefit of all its stakeholders, even those residents only in Westwood for four years.
Even with a relatively short stay in Westwood, students share a common set of interests from year to year. For instance, provided it is not fixed, the lack of streetlights in the North Village will be just as detrimental to the safety of student renters in a decade as it is today.
Students also share an interest in a more vibrant, youth-friendly culture in Westwood Village.
For their part, students should view the Westwood Neighborhood Council as a vehicle for accomplishing goals that require the city’s approval or involvement. Although efforts made to improve the community via the council may not bear fruit within four years, sustained involvement by students can bring long-term change.
What is needed is a paradigm shift in the way Westwood governs itself. Students need to begin to view the neighborhood council as a lever for improving their community. For its part, the council needs to do all it can to be such a lever.
Hey Daily Bruin, whatever happen to fair access to ALL the candidates running?. How do you only hold endorsement hearings for two seats and not ALL the seats?. The daily bruin should play it’s part by providing the community with “meeting briefs” similar to what is published the day after USAC meetings.
As a current WWNC board member, I would just like to comment on meeting space and times. Our meetings are held every month , on the second Wednesday evening of that month. Our meetings are held within our boundaries, as per our by-laws. We have them at only ONE venue, which is the Westwood Presbyterian Church on Wilshire, only two blocks from Westwood Village. Happy to hear your ideas for space that is closer, but we have researched this quite a bit. It is extremely difficult to get reasonably priced space anywhere in the Village or within our boundaries. We have tried extensively to use the free space at the Belmont Center, but since the Westwood Community Council meets there, they will not let another council use the facilities. We have very limited funds, and we choose to spend our city-allotted funds on Neighborhood Purpose Grants that benefit all living in the community, not on expensively priced venues for meetings. Very few of our meetings are cancelled. Usually it is around the holidays when many of our students are home with families and we do not have a quorum to meet.