New online Campus Daily Guides not yet available to WMU

By Ali Pavlicek
Western Herald

Restaurant guides, upcoming events, the latest news and so much more will all be available at the click of a button.

That’s right, this is all possible, now that MTVU launched Web sites on Aug. 26 for university students to use a nationwide program called Campus Daily Guides.

“[Campus Daily Guides] are unique because they are the first one-stop destination for college students to go to for information,” MTV’s Vice President of University Relations Carlo DiMarco said.

These online guides include information organized by events, movies, venues, eat and drink and performers.

On the home page, students can also access features like Rate My Professors, Now Playing on MTVU, the latest news and a calendar of events.

MTVU’s partner Zvents, which provides the most content for the site, constantly updates all of the information from the Campus Daily Guides.

However, currently, Campus Daily Guides are only available to students at a select 25 universities, since the specific university that the student user attends categorizes the Web pages.  At this time, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor is the only university in Michigan with its own Campus Daily Guide established by MTVU.

“Right now, there are 25 this semester and 25 more [to be added] by the end of the year,” DiMarco said.
He further explained that the limiting number of universities is done so that MTVU can see what markets Campus Daily Guides could grow into, since there is no definite number of universities planned besides the initial 50.

Any student can visit the other universities’ Web pages, but the information displayed on the sites will only apply to students attending that university.

“It’s a nice way to integrate things that are in students’ lives all in one place.  I’d use it,” said WMU student Duncan McDonald after viewing the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Campus Daily Guide.

With several tools and other usable features, students may wonder how WMU could receive its own Campus Daily Guide; the Web site itself offers this opportunity right on its home page at

http://www.campusdailyguide.com.

“It looks like it would be useful for new and visiting students going to Western.  The only place I can compare it to is the Western Herald to find out what’s going on around campus,” said McDonald.

DiMarco explained that he could see students using Campus Daily Guides in a couple of ways; for example, it could be used casually to see the calendar function for everything happening during the day or the student could register with the site for a more interactive experience.

Students can submit feedback regarding any aspect of the site about restaurant reviews, suggestions, or other topics of concern.  According to DiMarco, feedback about the Campus Daily Guides mostly comes from students getting in touch with MTVU through the Web site itself.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=591

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Sep 17 2008. Filed under Nation, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com