News & Events
- The University Effect: UMass Lowell Could Help Revitalize City Housing
- How UMass Lowell Can Boost Downtown
- Forrant and Chalupka Published in Mass Benchmarks
- Better Community Interaction Key to NPS Grant
- RESD Professor Receives Creative Economy Fund Grant from UMass President’s Office
- RESD Student's Study of Gillette Shows a History of Putting Profits Before People
The University Effect: UMass Lowell Could Help Revitalize City Housing
Three-hundred-seventy-five: That's the number of foreclosures in Lowell in the last 180 days, making Lowell seventh in the state for foreclosures during this period. Lowell Sun Article
How UMass Lowell Can Boost Downtown
Patricia Coffey suggests ways that UML can partner with the city to improve the downtown area in this Lowell Sun article.
Forrant and Chalupka Published in Mass Benchmarks
RESD faculty member Robert Forrant and graduate student Anne Chulupka recently published a paper in Mass Benchmarks entitled, "Prospects in the Northeast". Read more ...
Better Community Interaction Key to NPS Grant
A three-year, $100,000 grant from the Lowell National Historic Park has set into motion an ambitious, historic study.
RESD Professor Receives Creative Economy Fund Grant from UMass President’s Office
A partnership between Professor Robert Forrant of RESD, the Cultural Organization of Lowell and the Revolving Museum has received a $35,000 grant from the University of Massachusetts President’s Office Creative Economy Fund to support a two-pronged project on behalf of Lowell’s creative economy.
An education on immigration Students learn firsthand during summer break
When students hear the words "summer job," they usually think about bagging groceries or flipping burgers. However, a summer job can also mean a unique learning opportunity and a chance to become involved in the community. Five high school students and five
Read more...
RESD Student's Study of Gillette Shows a History of Putting Profits Before People
Gillette, the famed razor maker, made headlines in January 2005 when it was acquired by Procter & Gamble for $57 billion, creating what investor Warren Buffett called "the greatest consumer products company in the world." Gillette, one of the largest manufacturers in Massachusetts, made headlines again in May 2006 when it announced it was closing a packaging plant in Devens, Massachusetts, immediately eliminating 100 jobs and threatening another thousand at a neighboring plant where Gillette has not renewed its lease. The closing came despite earlier assurances that the acquisition would not lead to job losses in the state.
But according to a study by RESD student Sara White, this kind of behavior is nothing new for Gillette. The makers of the Mach 3 razor and other familiar products had been downsizing and offshoring for years, as company earnings increased. At the Devens packaging facilities, they use an almost entirely temporary workforce staffed primarily by Latinos from nearby Lawrence. A survey of Gillette temps reviewed by White shows that many depend on food stamps and Medicaid (MassHealth) while working at Gillette. White estimates that the total cost to the state of these two assistance programs alone for Gillette workers has been $3.5 million per year. Employees complained of insecurity, discrimination, and abusive treatment.
White's research was completed in November 2005, and the study was released by the University of Massachusetts Lowell's Center for Industrial Competitiveness in July 2006. Read the study.
For questions about the study, contact Sara White, 978-256-3070.
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RESD Grad and Professor Recognized for Research on Wal-Mart in Mexico
Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in Mexico, as it is in the United States. How good are the jobs there? RESD graduate José Luis Álvarez Galván (MA 2005, now a doctoral student at the London School of Economics) and Professor Chris Tilly have researched this and other questions about the retail industry in Mexico. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette recently highlighted their work in an article about Wal-Mart jobs around the world. (click here to read the article).
Tilly and Álvarez Galván, working with a larger research team that included MA students Patricia Jiménez and Elena Blanco as well as 2005 graduate Beth O’Donnell, used interviews with managers and workers, a review of union contracts (yes, Wal-Marts in Mexico are unionized!), and other data sources to reach their conclusions. Álvarez Galván wrote his MA thesis about the impact of Wal-Mart on the Mexican retail sector. Tilly has presented the research in Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, as well as within the United States. He is now working with other researchers to compare retail jobs in Mexico with those in the United States and five European countries. (For a list of Mexico project publications, including links to some papers, click here.)
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RESD Student Helps Community Residents Decode Lawrence's Budget
As part of the HUD Fellowship Program, RESD student Jeff Muckensturm has worked with Lawrence Community Works to help promote better community understanding and participation in the budgeting process of the city of Lawrence , not far from Lowell . Lawrence ’s low-income and Latino majority were shut out of the budgeting process and LCW wanted to do something about it.
Working closely with LCW’s organizing staff, Alma Couverthie and Marianna Leavy-Sperounis, Jeff helped create a community-led participatory action research project that resulted in the “People’s Guide to the Lawrence City Budget” which was published last summer. Since producing the “Guide,” Jeff has join community organizers and leaders at LCW strategizing about building Participatory Budgeting, popular in Brazil and parts of Africa, into the Lawrence city budgeting process.
The following article, published in the Boston Globe, tells about the results of hard work all the community leaders, organizers, and Jeff have put into this effort to understand Lawrence’s city budget. (Boston Globe Article)
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