With a new advertising campaign and a new director in the works, change is afoot for the nonprofit organization known as University City District.
According to its Web site, UCD was founded in 1997 "to improve the quality of life of this 2.2-square-mile area of West Philadelphia" known as University City. Over the summer, this quest for improvement surfaced in a new strategic marketing plan, which includes a new UCD logo and a new tagline for University City.
The new tagline, which will be used to promote the University City area, reads, "Left of Center." UCD spokeswoman Lori Klein Brennan explained that this "strong, compelling, positive tagline ... reflects the diverse and funky offerings that University City has to offer."
Brennan added that UCD's new logo has a similar message.
"It's very abstract," she said. "It makes the viewer have to stop and discover the meaning. We feel that it speaks to the intellectual side, the artful side and the diversity of University City. We also hope that this logo will separate us from other special services districts."
Both the logo and tagline are part of the new advertising campaign UCD began this summer, with ads visible in the Philadelphia Daily News, bus shelters and billboards throughout the area. UCD has been focusing on local advertisements because "more so than attracting people to University City, [the new marketing plan] is about letting people that are currently here know what is in their own backyard," Brennan said.
Instead of traveling to Center City or Manayunk for a night out, Brennan pointed to the restaurants, park and movie theaters in the University City area that students can get to easily.
But this new marketing plan is not the only sign of change at UCD. Executive Director Eric Goldstein, who has led the organization for six and a half years, announced his plans to step down earlier this month.
"I am proud of my contributions to UCD and to University City but have decided that there are other professional challenges I would like to pursue," he said in a released statement.
Brennan said that the search for a new executive director has not yet begun, though there are plans to form a search committee soon, in which Goldstein will likely participate.
With three delegates on the UCD board, the University is also likely to have a voice in selecting UCD's next director, according to University Director of City and Community Relations Glenn Bryan.
"We're committed to making sure that UCD has the finest leadership, and it's a very important part of the community and the neighborhood. UCD is an essential service," he said, adding, "We want to make sure that ... it's able to grow, and grow independently."
