Northwestern’s very own Craigslist: onCampusbillboard.com.
That’s the idea anyway, said Claire Waluch, onCampusbillboard’s Northwestern representative.
“There are so many different groups at NU [...] if you want one thing, you have to send it over every listserv,” said Waluch, Weinberg sophomore. “Instead, you can just post it on the forum. You don’t have to register, and it’s free.”
OnCampusbillboard.com, launched in September 2009, is an online forum organized into various categories: jobs, housing, events, networking and for-sale postings. Students are able to browse and post relevant information through the campus-specific website, which also contains a calendar.
“It’s like ‘Plan-It Purple,’” said Waluch. “In addition to academic, religious and sporting events, the calendar aims to list all of the Greek or student-organized activities on campus.”
The website was founded by Alex Gilberg and Yair Ben-Shlomo “to provide college students with an internal bulletin board where they can buy, sell, trade and connect with peers,” according to a mock press release. Currently, the website is only active on four college campuses: University of California at Berkeley, Yale, Brandeis and Northwestern, according to Gilberg.
“We have around 3,000 people accessing the site on a monthly basis,” he said.
Gilberg’s inspiration for onCampusbillboard stemmed from personal experience.
“I have two kids in college, and actually the idea came from them,” said Gilberg. “Their friends were complaining that they don’t have a central place to go and communicate with other students on issues like carpooling, book exchange and trading.”
Waluch, Gilberg’s cousin, was recruited in October 2009 to advertise and promote as Northwestern’s representative. “Don’t Let Norris Bookstore Rip You Off Again,” her Facebook event reads. Through onCampusbillboard’s “For Sale” section, students are able to post listings and their requested prices.
“The main draw of the website is that everything is in one place,” said Jocelyn Cohen, Weinberg senior and the website’s media relations coordinator. “OnCampusbillboard is really open to the entire campus as opposed to specific people on certain listservs.”
Cohen recognized that listserv and flyer-posting are some of the primary ways that Northwestern students currently communicate. This fact has been taken into account while advertising onCampusbillboard, Cohen said.
“It’s kind of a paradox that you have to flyer and spam listservs to get people to know about [onCampusbillboard],” Cohen said. “With people looking for subletters, we remind them to post to the site. Right now, we still have to use other resources because we can’t guarantee that OCB has a large enough population.”